Between Misery and Ecstasy
by LynnAgate
Summary: Expanded from 'The 452 Files' Chapter 34 "Call My Bluff." Alec and Max's attempt to work out exactly what is going on between them causes them to explore the line between misery and ecstasy. Disclaimer: Dark Angel is owned by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. For entertainment purposes only.
1. Call My Bluff

They'd just reached the sewer sublevel when Alec finally said something. They'd been accompanied until they reached the sublevel, and Alec had been grinding his teeth the whole time. Max knew she'd messed up, but she'd had no choice.

"Can you explain to me why you're always in such a rush to blame me? Not like I haven't thought about it, but Max, I'm not the type of guy to steal another guy's girl."

Max's jaws clenched. "I'm not some guy's girl!"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Oh, save it. I know. You're 'not like that.'"

"That's not what I meant, jackass! I'm not someone's property to be stolen."

"Yes you are. You're the property of the U.S. government."

Max considered hitting him. "You know what I meant. It's disgusting and insulting."

"Then why'd you say it was me?"

Max took a deep breath. She knew the answer. Alec was an endurance model – lean and muscular in all the right places, not to mention he was pretty easy on the eyes and could physically do more than Logan. And he had been hanging around her the whole year. She knew Alec was intimidating to Logan. And when Logan saw them together, everything fell into place. "I had to push him away," she finally answered.

Alec turned his stare back forward and kept walking, playing through the scenario in his mind. It made sense that Max would push Logan away with him, but only if there was something already there between them. If it was believable, it was because there was something between them.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he almost missed her question.

"Wait a minute, you've thought about it?" she accused, on the verge of smiling.

"Of course. I'm a red-blooded American man," he started. "I'd have to be dead not to have thought about it."

Max was taken aback. As Alec continued forward, she asked, "Really?"

For a moment, Alec didn't answer. He stopped walking, turned to face her, and with a serious and honest expression, answered. "Yeah, really."

"Well how come you never said anything?"

Alec turned to start walking again, sighing in frustration that he had allowed the conversation to continue this long. "Because I'd rather not be castrated. Besides, I kinda did."

Max caught up to him, thinking back through the things he had said in the past.

"You were always distracted," he added.

"No I wasn't. I'd remember if you said anything. You haven't. You've never even looked at or talked to me the same way you do other women."

"That's because you're not some vapid, obvious automaton," he bit back at her audacity to presume she knew his style.

"Is that a compliment?"

"Besides, I did try that when we first met, but as usual, you were distracted, and it never would have worked anyway."

"So you're saying you _are_ the kind of guy who'd steal another guy's girl."

"No. I'm only suggesting that given our history, now you'd know if I was coming on to you."

"By all the intense staring and sweet caresses you're known for?" she replied sarcastically.

Finally fed up, Alec stopped in his tracks, pushed her to the wall, and held her body there with his. "You'd know because I wouldn't love you from a distance, I'd love you up close with _every_ piece of me. And it wouldn't be pansy-ass hand holding and eternal stares, it'd be the way we were built: hard and rough," he said through gritted teeth, pushing his body intimately against hers until she gasped, wide-eyed and with expanding pupils, before continuing, "breathless and with bared teeth and pounding hearts, and always riding that wicked line between misery and ecstasy."

Though she felt his growling throughout her body awaken what she'd thought were long lost instincts, Max had the urge to cross her legs to help alleviate some of the pressure the solid planes of his body formed against her.

She tried to wiggle out of his grasp. Bad move. It only turned her on more and allowed his thigh to muscle between her legs and press even more intimately at her center. What she'd meant to sound like a disapproving groan instead came out like a moan of pure pleasure.

Her traitorous body relaxed a fraction of an inch, and true to form, he filled the space. Pressing his nose to her neck and shoulder, he inhaled as Max tried to will her body to follow her commands. No dice.

He nuzzled his face against her skin. "Jesus, Max. I had no idea I did this to you." He inhaled again, her scent a strange and suddenly powerful intoxicant.

Managing to get her hands between them, she started pushing him just as he backed away. "Ugh! Get off!" she grunted as she shoved him back a couple of steps.

He regained his balance within the second, but she'd seen how blown out his pupils were. No way he got that hot just from smelling her, right?

"I'd be happy to help you with that, you know," he offered.

"With what?"

"Getting off," he answered simply, recalling her shouted words.

Her body was fighting to get to him but her brain was desperately trying to hold firm on her stance. "You couldn't handle me," Max said. It sounded like a 'no' in her mind, but after she'd said it out loud, it sounded like a challenge. She tried to undermine it by adding, "I'm too much woman for you," but somehow that hadn't worked either.

Alec laughed as if he knew she was full of it. "Max, you do know that we have cat in our DNA, right? I can _smell _you."

Max stammered to hit him back with a quip – maybe something about how much he stunk, but he beat her to it.

"I mean, _really _smell you." His eyes danced down to her pants and she felt the immediate contradictory necessity to rip her pants off and strap on the chastity belt.

"You're mistaken," she eventually came up with, shutting her jaw tight. She tried to refrain from looking at his pants to see if she'd had any effect on him, but her curiosity outweighed her brain function and her eyes traveled down his body to confirm the telltale sign of his erection pressing against his (constricting, her mind supplied) jeans. She knew her pupils dilated, she just hoped he hadn't seen it.

"You sure? You sure you're not zooming in on my package right now?"

_Damn it! Why'd he have to call me out on it? _Max asked herself. "Yeah, just looked like you wet yourself," she tried to recover.

Alec rubbed at his pant leg where he'd held her up against the wall and brought his fingers to his nose. "I'm not the wet one," he said, smirking, and began walking again.

Max refrained from groaning in frustration. Did he know how infuriating he could be?


	2. Friendly Fire

After a cold, emotionless, work-only talk with Logan, Max had really worked herself into quite an annoyed lather at the old gym. "No, that's okay. Asha can handle that," she mocked Logan between punches and kicks to the bag. "She's prettier and more human than you anyway," she added.

"Oh, come on," came Alec's voice, seemingly from out of nowhere. "Don't sell yourself short. You know at least one man who's affected by your womanly wiles."

Max twirled to face him, trying to surprise him with a right cross, but he ducked out of the way. "Shut up!" she said through gritted teeth.

He looked around, noticing only a few other people in the smaller TC gym. "Oh, is this a private pity party, or are you permitting others to join?"

It was a challenge and she knew it. "Bring it on."

His eyes lit up at her acceptance. Shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it to the side, Alec approached Max, his arms dangling at his sides.

Which Max took as an insult. How dare he feign not even having to defend himself! Immediately, she jabbed forward with a right-left-right assault, all of which he avoided by moving aside.

"Maxie… something bothering you?" he taunted.

Dropping to a squat, Max swept her leg around to try to knock him off of his feet, but he hopped over her leg, and as she turned to stand up, dropped to his hands and swept his leg under hers. It was a satisfying thud as her back hit the mat, and another satisfying 'oof' slipped from her throat as Alec pinned her down with his body.

"Get off!" she shouted, angrily wiggling underneath him.

"I already offered to help you with that," he said, dipping his head to the junction of her neck and shoulder. "I think you're letting anger rule your movements," he added, backing off of her with less than a second to dodge her next kick. "Now, is that what this is really about? You think Asha's prettier than you?"

Embarrassed, Max did her best to let it out as anger. She grunted and threw her fist into a strong punch, a punch which Alec caught and of which he wouldn't let go.

"You think she's some kind of Max-replacement?"

She thrust her other fist at him, and he caught that one, too.

"This is gonna get old," he warned as she struggled to free her fists. When that didn't work, she landed a knee to his side. He coughed and let go of her fist to grab her leg instead. He held it at his side and then took her right to the mat. Again.

Holding her down, his body pressing against hers, Max gasped at being caught and tried to wiggle free or push at him with her one free hand.

Leaning down toward her, Alec noticed her still, noticed her scent change again. His pupils resized again like they had in the sewer. "How long has it been?" he asked in a low growl.

Transfixed by the depth of his voice and watching how his lips curled back t the question, Max breathed heavily and licked her lips.

Alec took it as a sign and pressed against her further, so there'd be no question what she did to him. Her eyes rolled back and shut, and she let out a tiny moan.

"How long?" he asked again, against her neck, as if asking anywhere else might dissolve him.

How could he expect her to answer that without an inch of her body or mind to herself? "Too long," she managed.

And like that, he released her and she felt the whole of his weight lifted off of her. Her body ached at the loss of his, and the feeling of it scared the hell out of her.

"Max," he called.

She opened her eyes and fond him reaching a hand out to help her up.

"You know… waiting on Logan for so long –" he started, pulling her to her feet. He let go of her hand. "Well, I'm not him. And I'm not gonna pussyfoot around."

Max found the pure male straightforwardness refreshing, to a degree. Inner Kitty Max definitely did. Inner Kitty Max scratched at the surface, begging her to reach out to him, promising they would destroy each other with sex and aggression.

But as he walked out of the gym, she reflected on his statement and bit her lip.

Was that a promise or a threat?


	3. A Taste of Things to Come

It was a question over which she labored for two full days, until she'd called Alec's cell and requested his presence in her office for the census and arms reports.

She had shut her door preemptively, under some conceptual responsibility she felt to buffer what could be their umpteenth fight from prying transgenics within earshot (so, nearly all of them in Command), and it was probably in vain, since everything about her office walls screamed 'paper thin'. She propped her head in her hands. Running a city was hard, and she had the beginnings of a migraine coming on.

When Alec waltzed in with blatant disregard for what a closed door meant (_knock, idiot,_ she thought), she looked up to his overly-charming smile.

"Hey Max. We got twelve newbies over on Boren at Denny," he started nonchalantly, rolling right into the reports for which she'd asked. "All X7; Gem's placing them. Mole's got an arms run tomorrow. I'm going – it'll take a couple of days – "

Max's eyes snapped to his face as he rambled on with all the numbers she had requested. How could he be so calm after his admission not two days ago? He'd covered her body with his, and the mere act of it was tearing her apart, and wait, did he just say he'd be gone for a couple of days?

"- and are you even listening to me?" he asked, following the question with a breath. The X5 brain had a remarkable capability of remembering lists upon lists of numerical data, and he wanted to get the update over with so he could get back to training with the X6s.

Max stood up. "No, I wasn't."

"Well at least you're honest," he said, shrugging. "Look, I know it's a lot of info-"

Max walked around her desk. "Sorry, I just," she paused, bringing a hand to her head and sitting on the edge of her desk. "Been feelin' the migraine aura for the past half." She shut her eyes.

Within the second, she felt his hand at her temple. "You okay? Did you take your meds today?"

"It won't be a seizure," she offered, leaning into his touch unconsciously.

"You know what I've always heard is best for a migraine?" he asked, a hint of danger in his calming voice.

Max sighed and smiled. "I don't know, frontal lobotomy?"

He chuckled and raked his hand through her hair, using his fingertips to apply pressure to her scalp.

She groaned softly. He'd never touched her like that before.

When he repeated the action, he brought his fingertips along her jaw and tilted her face up to him.

She opened her eyes and saw his concerned stare. "Feels good," she said.

Which he took as an invitation. Raking both hands through her hair, he dragged his fingertips down her neck and around her back, standing closer to her to envelop her in the circle of his arms.

Max breathed in. With her eyes closed, she felt slightly braver and hummed approvingly. "You were right, this is helping my migraine."

Alec chuckled softly and considered saying something along the lines of having to get her admission on tape. It wasn't every day she admitted someone else was right about anything. Instead, he lowered his voice. "Imagine what mind-numbing orgasm would do."

Her eyes snapped open to see if he was merely making an innuendo, but his eyes were half-closed already, allowing only a sliver of their hazel warmth to seep out. He watched her lips part to take a breath.

And again, just like that, the air was heavy between them and she felt her skin heat up. Her heartbeat picked up some speed as he stepped just one step closer. Though seated on the edge of her desk, she scooted back a bit, her legs (_traitorously?_ she began to question) opening wider to let his narrow hips between them. "Why would I have to imagine," she began, Alec's heady gaze causing her to feel breathless, "when you've already told me it's mind-numbing?"

Max swept her arms up until she threaded her fingers in his sandy hair. She pulled him toward her and he pressed his lips to her neck. Her head rocked back in pleasure as his lips and tongue danced slowly about her neck.

"Hey, Max, I—" Dix called, and in the millisecond before he rounded the corner, Max panicked, trying to remember if Alec had closed her door, or if their behavior would soon become public knowledge.

He hadn't closed the door, and as Alec mentally berated himself for it, Dix rounded the corner and stepped two feet into Max's office. His eyes widened as he saw his Commanding Officer and the Second in Command… _in flagrante_? "Oh, sorry, I—"

Max snapped her head back up and gently pushed at Alec's shoulders. He seemed completely intoxicated and had trouble tearing his lips from her skin. When his eyes finally met hers, he backed away, keeping his back to Dix, and nodded sullenly, defeated.

Feeling guilty for having to push him away, Max looked to Alec, then Dix, then Alec, and finally back to Dix. "You needed-?"


	4. Taking Advantage

"Shit." Max cursed herself, watching from a quasi-safe distance as Alec enlisted the help of the new X5 doctor, Erin, to teach the young X6s about basic field med.

The 'shit' wasn't because he was teaching them field med, or because he had enlisted the ivory-haired doc with a decent rack; no, the 'shit' was because she realized upon Alec's first charming smile that she, Max Guevara, was jealous. That's what that twinge of partial disgust was about, right? Not because she disliked Erin – Erin was delightful, not disgusting – but because Erin was getting the attention Max craved?

The ghost feeling of Alec's lips on her neck was making her insane with confusion. It was Alec, who, until her reintroduction to Manticore, seemed to live a trivial life of frivolity – always making deals, finding the weak points of people and exposing them, taking advantage of others' flaws to get ahead inside the gates, and probably on his solos, too.

It had only been an hour since Dix's decidedly not-interruption-worthy intelligence had caused the resurgence of Max's Touch-Me-Not attitude, which, in turn, caused Alec to walk out of her office.

If this was war, he was winning.

Logically, Max knew she should not want Alec coming around, flaunting himself about all nonchalantly, infuriating her with his complete control, just to catch her checking him out or pique her curiosity, or suggest by body language alone that they might be a good fit together. He was about the here and now, the immediate future. Hell, he'd said as much before. His intentions were definitely questionable, and she shouldn't want to be another notch on his proverbial bedpost. Right?

But now, as she watched how effortless it seemed for him to teach the young kids, she was filled with an odd sense of pride. They all had the basic maneuvers down, and he was showing them how to inflict the most damage with the least amount of effort, and then how to clean up themselves or their comrades if they were the subject of the 'most damage.'

Doc Erin had asked him to remove his shirt so she could apply the unnecessary bandaging. Alec stared at Erin for a moment before complying. Leaning on an elbow on the grass, his lean form the epitome of carefree, he looked like a model, like a dream she wanted to get back to dreaming, just to see where it led.

And as Doc Erin put her hands on his abdomen, Max seethed with anger from across the courtyard. He was deliberately taunting her. He knew he was driving her nuts, and nothing pleased him more than knowing someone was under his thrall. And somehow she let herself be affected by it. By him.

Suddenly, Alec's eyes locked on hers. For a moment, she felt it might have been in shock – to see that she actually was watching him from afar, and what a compromising position it might seem that he might have been in with the Doc. His shoulders twitched as if he were about to stand and his mouth fell open as if he was about to call out to her, but instead, he took a breath, winked at her, and turned his attention back to the Doc. He made a joke Max couldn't hear, and as Erin shook with laughter, Max turned on her heel and found her way back to the gym.

_Alright, tough guy. You think you've pulled my card, but we haven't even begun to play._

She let her coat fall to the floor of the dusty gym. Her long-sleeve over shirt was next to join it. Max felt her fingernails digging into her palms before she realized her hands were clenched in tight fists.

She wanted to hit something. Hard. Stomping over to the punching bag, she began her work.

Why was she even letting him get to her? She was better than that, right? She was Max Guevara, for Christ sakes, and she kicked ass first, and you were damn lucky if she asked any questions at all later. She was fazed by no man; and if Alec thought he could get away with… well, everything she'd let him get away with lately, well, then he had another thing coming.

Spiteful and overcome with anger, Max worked up quite a sweat at the bag. Her long hair was starting to weigh down with moisture, a few strands sticking to her neck and forehead. Her knuckles were starting to skin. She removed the annoying tank top, leaving her in her sports bra and pants, and cased the gym for anything that might help.

She spotted an open bag next to Sydney, another X5 series built for foreign recon. A roll of the sport tape for which she was looking stuck angelically out of the top of Sydney's bag. Sydney herself was halfway through her rep of push-ups when Max interrupted. "Mind if I use your tape?"

Sydney exhaled while pushing her body up. _Jesus, Max looks wound tight_, she thought. "No problem. Should be an extra hair tie in there, too."

Max found the hair tie and pulled her hair back into it. She grabbed the tape and once prepared, began the second wind of her workout.

_Stupid Alec, smiling all over TC with his perfect technique and perfect strategies and perfect face!_

Despite punctuating everything that was perfect about him with punches and kicks, Max completely steamrolled over her own admission that she thought his face was perfect.

_Walkin' around like sex on legs… more like trouble on legs! More like a moving bullet-magnet on legs! Perfect goddamn legs…_

Seemingly unbidden, a flash of Alec's handsome face entered her mind, and she stilled her movements. _Okay, so, he's handsome. So what? Doesn't give him a right to treat people like they don't matter. To say things that make them interested and then say those same things to someone else. Even if he's not kissing someone else…_

"Shut up!" she grunted aloud.

"Geez, I didn't even say anything yet," Alec said defensively from behind her.

As Max spun around to face him, caught at the gym again, she tried to calm her body. She was on edge, hyped and tensed, taut, and she was in no mood to lose today.


	5. Getting Your Licks In

Instead of responding to Alec's defensive comment, Max paced a semi-circle around him like a hungry predator. She didn't care that Sydney had stopped her reps and watched them. This wasn't about Sydney. In fact, the more people who were witness to this beat-down, the better, in Max's opinion.

He had redressed since the training with the X6s, but as he became alert to her intention, Alec dumped his jacket. "Oh, you ready to get spanked again?"

Max gritted her teeth and continued pacing around him, sizing up the competition. More muscle mass, but it would make him slower. On the defense, which would make him quick to respond to any of her offensive maneuvers. She'd have to wait until he got cocky, which would probably happen soon, before making any moves which could actually take him down. It was an endurance game, and truth be told, Alec wasn't the only endurance model. He was still a little stiff in the torso, but Max was loose from her workout. Her muscles were warmed up and she was ready for the fight.

Alec was definitely distracted by the woman before him. The feral look in her eyes screamed her defiant, wild, 'fuck you' attitude. She still had those tight black pants on, but contrary to earlier, she had dressed down to her sports bra, and looked as if she were melting under his stare, like if he reached out, she'd slip right out of his grasp – that is, if he could even get his hands on her.

Besides her sweatier-than-normal physique, he could see she was determined to get her work out today, because she'd gone through the trouble of taping up her hands. He wondered how long she'd been there. Christ, she had even tied her hair back. Seemed like this was maybe the second time since he'd known her that her hair wasn't swinging at her back, covering her barcode, ensuring her anonymity from prying governmental types.

He appreciated the lines of her stomach, the curve of her hips, her slender legs and toned arms. He noted every place where sweat could collect.

Max could feel his eyes clinging to her every curve as he spun in place to keep her face-to-face. It was as if he was a parched man in the desert and she was his oasis.

This time, he felt the need to raise his fists in defense.

"You're the one that's gonna get spanked," she finally said.

He nearly laughed out loud. God, she was terrible at comebacks lately. Was it all in an effort to sound as if she wasn't attracted to him? he wondered. "Oh, really? And you're gonna do the spanking?"

Max lifted a brow suggestively. "Only if you're a bad boy," she teased, stilling a moment.

His mind reeled with the possibilities of what he'd have to do to be a bad boy. He knew what it meant when other girls said it, but this was brand new territory for Max. He played along. "And how would I manage that?"

Max swept some renegade strands from her long ponytail over her shoulder and smeared the sweat on her collar down toward her breastbone.

Transfixed, Alec's mouth fell open, and Max took advantage of it and lunged forward to punch him in the side.

Having left himself vulnerable made him angry at himself, so as he recovered, his fists came up and he began the same predatory pace his opponent had adopted. Continuing to circle one another, Alec said, "So you're gonna fight dirty again? Well, good luck. I still have ten years on you."

It was Alec who threw the next punch, and Max ducked out of the way. Her senses were on such high alert that she felt like she could see his movements before he made them.

"Oh, what's the matter, Alec? You seem… distracted." She punctuated the word with a punch toward his head.

Bobbing out of the way, Alec sunk down, keeping one elbow close to his body, and jabbed at her with his left fist. It caught her in the side, but she reacted as if she hadn't felt it at all.

"Just giving you a chance," he derided.

He hoped she'd feel patronized and that her anger would get the better of her, disrupt her defenses. Her eyes widened as if he'd surprised her, but she quickly schooled her features.

She dodged his next punch and spun to roundhouse kick him. He caught her foot and twisted it, the momentum of which Max used to swing her other foot up and toward his head. It connected, and as he went down, she used her hands to catch her fall and push herself back up onto her feet.

Alec grunted, upset. She'd dropped him so quickly. Maybe he was feeling a little distracted.

Getting to his feet, Alec pulled his shirt off and tossed it toward his jacket. If she could play dirty, sweaty, so could he.

_Don't look at his body, don't look at his body,_ Max chanted mentally. _Don't get distracted. Just remember, you are nothing to him._

Max looked down at his abs for a moment, then back up to his confident stare. His brow rose as if he knew he'd had an effect on her, as if he'd caught her staring. She made no gestures to deny it. Instead, she funneled the emotion into her core and steeled herself.

In a quick flurry of hand movement, Alec rushed at her, his eyes and shoulders indicating his movements. He jabbed forward, toward her torso, beginning with his left fist, then his right, then back to his left, each jab dismissed by her blocking hands, before his eyes moved back up to her face. By then, it was too late, as all he saw was her taped fist coming at him in a blur.

She threw a right-cross and hit her mark – his nose – driving him backward with a loud whack. His eyes welled with a few tears and he brought his hands up to his nose to check if it was bleeding. It was.

Okay, he was pissed. "Damn it, Max!"

Max shrugged, turning her hands up defensively. "What? Can't handle gettin' your ass whipped? Think you're the only one who can get his licks in?"

He pursed his lips and nodded. He smeared the blood between his thumb and forefinger and clenched his fists again. He licked his lips. eHe "Hope you had your fill, 'cause that's all the licks you're gonna get."

"Lotta shit-talkin' for someone who just got dropped by a buck-fifteen," she added challengingly.

Alec felt his anger rising and began his pacing again. She would not get the better of him a third time. He would make sure of it. He'd wait for her to make a move this time, then make sure her shoulders hit the mat first. His face took on an icy, sharp focus as he watched her movements, waiting for his opportunity.

Seeing his calculated stare watching her every move, Max made a plan. Like in the game of chess, she was building a strategy to undermine his. Every offensive move underlined with a defense, a failsafe. She understood at this point he needed to reevaluate his own defense aesthetic. She'd have to make the first move this time.

Max took a small breath and approached him. She jabbed at his face with her right hand, and Alec bobbed away, dropped to a squat to sweep his leg under hers. She jumped over his leg and quickly mirrored his action, sweeping her leg under his.

As he fell back, Max straddled his torso and held his shoulders to the mat. She pushed back on his lap and ground into him, looking down at his face as it twisted in pleased agony. His stomach muscles contracted as he lifted his head to look at her, simultaneously bringing his hands to her hips to hold her in place.

"Guess I won," Max gloated, a sly smile adorning her victorious face.

In a jumble of action, Max found herself flipped over on her back, Alec now holding her hips on the mat and his body resting over hers, her legs still on either side of him. "Did you?"

Rising up on to her elbow, Max raised her hand to his neck and circled her head around to the other side of his neck. She tongued the sensitive skin just below his ear lobe, sending shivers through his body. She spoke in sultry, low tones into his ear. "I got the last lick."

Grabbing his neck with her hand, she pulled him to her right, sending him to his side, and stood up. "See you in a couple days," she said triumphantly, grabbing her clothes and heading out the doors.

Alec let his had fall back into the mat. _Fuck._

"Jesus, what'd you do to deserve that?" Sydney asked. There was a hint of mockery in her voice. At the very least, she was entertained.

Alec lifted his head to glare at her from across the gym.


	6. When First We Practice

The truck Mole 'requisitioned' bumped along the highway, jostling its occupants occasionally. It made no difference to Mole or Alec, who'd seated themselves in the front seats, but poor Mike stuffed himself into the extended cab and with every bump, he grimaced and grunted.

"Tell me again why I didn't get the front seat," Mike called.

Mole and Alec looked to one another, grinning on causing their friend a minimal amount of pain. "I called shotgun," Alec said. "Mole's driving, so that leaves you 'bitch.'"

Mole switched his cigar to the opposite side and spoke out of the corner of his mouth toward the muscled X4. "Sorry, Mikey. Just gonna have to wear your big girl panties today and get over it."

Mole's smile widened as Mike grimaced in the rearview mirror. "Tell that to my balls. Every time you take a speed bump at 40 is like a shot to the boys with steel-toed boots."

The three transgenics were about halfway to their destination in Saskatoon. Though news had traveled quickly once Sydney cleaned up from her workout, no one had actually bothered bringing up Alec's little workout with Max. Maybe because they thought they might get their asses kicked if they did. But, confined in a vehicle for the whole goddamned day made everyone more irritable and claustrophobic, and ironically for Mike, ballsier.

"Speaking of steel-toed boots, heard you got your ass handed to you by Queen Bitch," Mike said, bluntly.

Alec pushed back in his seat, squishing Mike's shoulders with the movement. Mike grunted a little.

Mole waited expectantly for Alec to respond. When he didn't, the lizardly soldier spoke up. "What, are you saying it's true?" he exclaimed. "That she's really the reason for the decorations on your swollen beak?"

Alec avoided their questions, a guilty smile spreading over his face.

"What! Why would you let her do that?" Mike squealed from the back.

A sly smile turned up the corner of his mouth. "Somethin' make you think I didn't get _exactly_ what I wanted out of the situation?"

Mike's mouth fell open and his brows rose in surprise. "You wanted to get steamrolled?"

Alec flashed back to the way she ground into his hips, pressing her core against him. He didn't care who was watching, he would have taken her right there if he was certain she wasn't using it as a distraction. He remembered flipping them over with such ease, and how her smaller frame felt underneath him. She was very flexible and her straddling legs had accommodated him instinctually.

And when she licked him, he felt himself harden. But was that just a distraction, too?

"Gentlemen, there is a very fine line between fighting and foreplay," he said, hoping this answer would suffice. "It is a tangled game we weave."

"Uh, it's 'web,'" corrected Mike.

Alec stared into the distance.

"Not for them," Mole said, laughing.

* * *

The guys had been gone for a day and a half, and Max was just fine with that. Time away from Alec meant time to think about what the hell was going on.

She'd won their little sparring session, so why did it seem like such a hollow victory? It felt like maybe she hadn't won at all. And she was still smarting from the jab he landed at her side. Not to mention, she felt bad for punching him square in the nose. What was the point of that? To see if a broken vomer made him less attractive? It didn't. And she hoped it wasn't broken.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt he still wasn't playing by the rules. She hadn't either, and they both knew it, but she thought Manticore had been so ingrained in him that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from completing the maneuvers.

Must be a reason he's the best of the best, right?

Max sighed and looked down to her paperwork. More citizen intake forms. More residency requests. More newborns on the way. A knock came at her door. "Yeah?"

Dix pushed the door open and peeked his head in. "You okay?"

Max looked down to her paperwork and then back up. "Of course! What's up?"

"Can I borrow the prints for that building in Sector Five we were talking about yesterday? I have something I want to check."

Max stood up. "Of course." She reached up to the top shelf where they kept the city plans and pulled the roll down with her left hand, holding her breath a little with its weight. Walking around her desk, she handed him the plans.

"Thanks, and just so you know, they checked in. Truck full of arms on the way back!"

Max smiled. "Well, that sounds creepy when taken out of context."

* * *

It was around eleven o'clock when Mole, Alec and Mike pulled back into TC in a truck full of weapons, as promised. The welcoming committee, as usual, was Dix, Luke, CeCe, and Max. Wait…

"Where the hell is Max?" Mole asked. "She said she was gonna help unload."

Dix unlocked the back of the truck bed and began pulling the crates from it. "She uh, she said she was feeling 'punk'."

"The hell does that mean?" Mole was in no mood to let someone off the hook from helping. They're the ones who had to drive eighteen hours one way to get the arsenal they so desperately needed to protect themselves (okay, twice more than what they strictly 'needed'), but she had said she would unload.

Luke circled around the vehicle and peeked in the cab. Fast food wrappers and trash littered the inside. "Jesus, you guys are a mess!"

"We try," Mole said, batting his eyelashes and slinging his rifle to his shoulder.

"Means she wasn't feeling well," Alec supplied, ignoring Luke completely. Worry crept up into his brows.

CeCe approached the group and made her way over to Alec. "Hey, welcome back."

"Yeah, thanks. Max okay?"

CeCe shrugged and tried to say under her breath, "she's not feeling well. I called in Brad. He'll be here in two minutes to help."

Now Alec was really worried. CeCe called someone in to relieve him so he could go check on Max? Must be really bad.

* * *

Alec wasn't sure what to expect. She was home and something was wrong enough for her to go home sick from work. She didn't get 'sick,' except for her seizures.

_Oh, shit._ Alec bounded up her stairs and burst right through her door. He saw her bathroom light was on by the sliver of yellow lining the bottom of the door. "Max?"

He heard an exasperated sigh. "I'm fine," she said. "Wel- welcome back."

He could hear her struggling with something, but he wasn't sure what. Maybe she was trying to control her speech – keep it from slurring or keep herself from stuttering. Or maybe she was trying to open her bottle of tryptophan.

He stood next to her bathroom door. "Let me in, Max."

"No," she said.

He heard a hiss followed by a grunt of pain that she was obviously trying to cover up. "That's it. I'm coming in."

He reached for the knob, expecting the door to be locked, but to his surprise, when he twisted the knob, the door moved open fluidly.

And there on the bathroom counter sat Max, topless save for her bra, with a swollen and nasty black, purple, and red bruise halfway up her right side.


	7. Quit Thinking

Max had a roll of slightly discolored sport bandage clenched in her left hand, a strip of mostly white gauze-like material resting between her pinched thumb and forefinger and the roll, all floating lightly atop her jean-clad, slender thighs. Again, her hair was pulled back and knotted into a messy, dark bun, and in the mirror's reflection, Alec could see her barcode, plain as day.

He frowned at the sight of her bruise and her apparent helplessness with the bandage, and quickly berated himself for not taking it easier on her during their sparring session. Christ, she couldn't even get a bandage around her ribs! He met her gaze and saw the same worried look plastered to her face. He'd forgotten that she'd nearly broken his nose with the one very-well-timed punch. Swimming in the depths of her concerned eyes, suddenly none of it seemed unimportant.

"Oh my god," she said, dropping the loose end of the bandage to reach up to his nose. He'd put a piece of tape across the laceration at the bridge of his nose, but otherwise, the swelling wasn't too bad and the redness was fading. She attempted to touch the injury, hissing a little at the pain at her side.

Confused, Alec jerked his chin away from her touch a fraction of an inch, partially to avoid her touch, and partially to help her avoid the pain which reaching would cause her. "It's not broken," he said. "It'll heal."

Cut with so much emotion, his statement answered more than one question, and Max felt the complications of their situation sharpen.

"What about you?" he asked, both hands twitching to check her ribs.

Max, suddenly very aware of her near-toplessness, held up the bandage. "Having trouble wrapping."

"Did I break them?" Stepping closer to get a better look at the massive bruise, Alec hooked his left hand around her right side and pressed gingerly at her back. His other hand splayed flat against her ribs in front and she winced, staring straightforward, tears in her eyes.

His heart sank. "I'm so sorry, Max. I shouldn't have engaged you like that."

A tear slipped from her eye and she pulled his hand from her stomach and used both of hers to form his into a fist. The bruise on her body was twice as big as his fist. He hadn't realized how much force he had actually used. She hadn't let on that he'd actually hurt her, either.

He opened his mouth to speak, to apologize more for being unable to restrain himself completely during their fight, to say anything, but Max beat him to it. "Don't be. I deserved it."

He shook his head. "No, you didn't. Not like this."

"Yes I did. You want to know the truth?" She looked up into his eyes, breathing in shallowly to avoid the pain at her side. Letting go of his fist, she raised her palm back to his face and caressed his cheek with her thumb.

Lowering her stare to his mouth, it seemed as if she'd suddenly become preoccupied with his lips. She remembered exactly how they'd felt on her neck, and she longed for that feeling again. Raising her eyes back to his, she cleared her throat.

Alec leaned into her touch. He wasn't sure if she would actually follow up her question with any of the statements he thought she might have. It required her to swallow her pride. He knew firsthand how difficult a task that could be. And if he was being honest, the idea of being with Max scared him. He wondered if she had similar thoughts.

Paralyzed by the look on his face, Max stilled, transfixed. How could she explain to him how vulnerable he made her, how susceptible she had felt in the sewers, and again in her office, to falling for him? How angry it made her to have the fear that she could be another in the long line of women he'd slept with, and not something more than just fun, just a fling?

"Quit thinking," he said suddenly, dipping his head toward hers and touching his lips to hers. It wasn't even a kiss – at least not in the traditional sense. He slowly pulled back to see her reaction.

Eyes closed and skin flushed, her hand still moved ghostlike at his face. She looked as if she was doing her best to just feel. Her fingers caressed along his jaw and Alec felt drawn back into her orbit.

Max led his lips back to hers and pulled him toward her by the gentle strum of his barcode. As Alec swept his other hand behind her back and stepped forward, Max stretched her chin up to keep their mouths at the same height. Like she had in her office, Max widened her legs in an unconscious effort to get him closer – get him between them. She set the bandage down and reached her good arm around his torso and hugged his body to hers, hugged his lips to hers.

His lips were soft, which felt like a paradox to Max as his hard torso pushed firmly against hers. She couldn't help but moan a little and open her mouth to him. Like before, he took advantage of the space, but unlike before, he teased her with gentility, his fingertips brushing her skin, his lips dancing on hers, his body vibrating into her space. As he pressed her against him, she gave a soft cry at her ribs' protest.

Immediately, Alec pulled back, eyebrows turned up in concern, but the look on his face betrayed his guilt. "Sorry."

Bending to her waist, Alec ran his thumb lightly over her ribs and leaned in to kiss her bruise, dragging his lower lip along each rib in the bruise radius, while Max laced her fingers in his hair, holding him near the damage he had caused.

He inched his mouth up until her bruise disappeared past her bra line and the bra itself became an obstacle. Max took a nervous breath. His was hot on her skin and coming in quicker intervals.

Pulling away from her skin again, he stared up into Max's eyes as his fingers swept around to her back. Her breath hitched as his digits paused at the clasps of her bra.

Max's stare bore into him like wildfire, consuming his oxygen, and as his heart raced, thumping hard against his chest, he managed the hooks out of the clasps and saw the bust of her bra loosen visibly. Her breaths sounded nervous, but she affected an heir of complete comfort.

That's when he panicked. "Wait," he said, bringing his hands back between them. Taking a step back, Alec shut his mouth tight.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, noting how his brows lifted in concern, or, she thought, maybe pain. He looked as if her bathroom was the last place he wanted to be, and Max with no bra, the last thing he wanted to see, and lips against hers, the last thing he wanted to do.

He lifted both hands, seemingly in defense, and took another step back. Then another. Then another, until he was out of the bathroom, and momentarily after that, out of her apartment.


	8. Busy Work

After Alec high-tailed it out of her apartment, Max spent the next few minutes in a vicious cycle of panic, self-loathing, and rage.

She panicked, thinking something she'd done or not done had pushed him out. She replayed everything that happened from the moment he let himself in until the moment he backed off to leave her alone in her bathroom. She'd apologized, he'd apologized, they'd kissed, they'd touched, and then poof! He was gone.

She speculated how it must be her – she must be undesirable in some way, or maybe too smart for his taste, or maybe not blonde enough, or maybe she'd done something stupid without knowing it. Did he really even like her, or was he only interested in her genetically enhanced body?

Finally, having exhausted what she thought were all possibilities, she settled on the fact that he was not interested in her, and was a moronic idiot whom she should have beaten off in the sewer and left him there.

Well, not 'beaten off,' she mused, thankful no one was around for her to talk to, because that would have sounded wrong. Though if she were being honest with herself, the idea of what his face might have looked like if she had… well, it was sinful.

After her revelations, she did a poor but sufficient job of wrapping her ribs, grabbed the single beer she had in her otherwise barren fridge, and stared out her window, watching how the gray clouds swept over the city like a chill, forcing their way out. She envied them. She wished her life could be like that, too – that the fog could roll out of her mind and lay everything bare, clear, in its wake.

After a long night of silence followed by about fifteen minutes of accidental sleep, Max stripped, showered, rewrapped her ribs, and redressed. She headed out to Command, ready to throw herself into her job to keep her mind off of… no, she wasn't even going to think his name.

At Command, Max was dedicated. More than dedicated, she was obsessed. More than obsessed, she was out of her mind. What the hell happened?

She sat in her office, glued to the same census report she'd been staring at for the last hour. _I am not undesirable, _she repeated mentally, tapping her pen against the paper. _Right?_

She took a drink of her coffee, but the faulty lid leaked very hot (and dirt-like) coffee all over her sweater. She stood and peeled her sweater up, with some complaint from her ribs, and over her head.

As her hair felt through the neck hole, Max tossed the garment to her ratty, threadbare couch, which left her in a black spaghetti strap tank top. And, as if the Perfect Timing Gods had a hard-on for making her uncomfortable, Mike happened by her open door.

He did a double-take. He'd never seen that much of her skin before. Intrigued, he paused mid-step and walked into her door jamb. "Hey Max," he greeted, though she could practically hear the sleazy undertones of 'how you doin'?' milling about his inflection.

"Hey, Mike. Everything went well with the arms run?" Coming out from behind her desk, Max almost relished in the way Mike was pointedly trying to avoid looking at her cleavage.

He succeeded for only twenty seconds. He looked down, then back up into her eyes. "Uh, yeah. Got twice as much as we needed. Should keep us protected for a little while." His eyes shifted down to her hands, both resting on the edge of her desk.

Max smiled. Okay, so someone found her attractive. Someone whose name didn't start with an 'A.'

Mike stepped further into the room. "You think we could get a van or something with the next vehicle? Riding 'bitch' in the truck was not helping my…" he trailed, trying to think of any other word to say besides 'balls.'

Thankfully, Max interrupted. "Of course. I'll put it on the list." She turned to grab the requisitions lists they'd been compiling and bent to grab the pen. She peered over her shoulder and caught Mike staring at her ass.

He looked away again, caught. "Sorry."

* * *

Alec busied himself with work around TC, finding anything at all to keep his mind off of Max and what happened in her bathroom, what didn't happen in her bathroom, what happened in the gym, the sewer, hell, everything that had ever happened with Max.

He volunteered to bring in the two new groups of X6s, which had taken the better part of the day. The first group of young soldiers had been holing up just outside Seattle in an abandoned warehouse, eating God-knows-what and barely surviving. Getting them back to TC and under some kind of control was taxing on what little patience he had today.

The second group was the exact opposite of the first. They were a group of trained soldiers which operated like a well-oiled machine. He had gone looking for them at their suggested rendezvous point near a community park, and when it seemed no one was there, they suddenly popped out from various hiding spots, ordering him to show them his barcode. Once they discovered they were outranked, they followed his every command and made the trek back to TC without incident.

After he had situated them in their dorm, Alec left TC again to meet with a contact. He was an old nurse who sold medical supplies, and Alec attempted to negotiate with him regarding obtaining an ultrasound machine for the women who'd "achieved mission requirements" with their breeding partners. The whole thing reminded him of his breeding partner, and before he could reach full smirk, he shook his head. He was supposed to be not thinking about Max and… breeding-related activities. He set up the date and time for the buy and headed back toward TC.

Max already had a meeting planned in the Situation room to outline the plan for Bravo Team's food run tomorrow, but he couldn't bring himself to attend. He was tired from the day and wanted nothing more than a hot shower, a cold beer, and some meaningless TV.


	9. The Set Up

Alec hadn't shown at the meeting, and Max wasn't sure whether she was pissed at him for it or if it was the most logical thing he could have done – they needed to spend some time apart. Strangely, she kind of missed his presence – the banter, his smart aleck remarks, his intense stares, but to her, it felt like the final proof she needed in order to realize that maybe, like with Logan, they just weren't meant to be.

When Logan called, requesting her presence at his penthouse to discuss an Eyes Only mission, Max jumped at the chance to spend some time away. Logan usually had her running around some facility or warehouse or museum, attempting to get security footage or some kind of intel or do some kind of recon and make it back with the disc or the flash drive or the equipment or the fraudulent art, and the idea of running around in the night on her own was so enticing that she agreed to meet him.

But when she let herself in to Logan's place, she realized quickly that they weren't alone. The kitchen counter had sandwich ingredients spread over it, as well as two plates with some crumbs strewn about them. _Asha, _she thought, a slight heir of distaste crossing her features.

Logan came out of the office laughing and seemed surprised that she'd actually snuck in this time. His smile fell at her countenance. "Hey, Max," he greeted.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked with a scowl and an inflection bordering jealous animosity.

Logan looked back toward his office.

"Hey, baby," Alec greeted, standing in the doorway. He smiled, and though Logan couldn't see the facetiousness in the X5's grin, Max couldn't miss it. It was like a neon orange sign screaming out 'What the hell is your problem?' Alec stepped toward her, placed a gentle hand at her side, and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

She wanted to shove him away, but the squeeze of her sore side reminded her sharply that just a few days ago, she had told Logan about her and Alec's 'relationship,' which meant she needed to play along. "Hey," she smiled through gritted teeth. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked him to come. I have a job for the both of you." Logan breezed past Alec, hesitating only for a brief moment when Alec pulled Max to his side again.

"You sure you need us both?" Max protested, trying very hard to make it sound innocent. "We got some stuff to take care of in TC, and if you could spare just one of us…"

"Or both of us," Alec added, nuzzling Max. She thought the gesture was pointless since Logan wasn't looking. Alec took in a breath.

"It's a two man job," Logan explained, sitting at his computer.

Alec bristled. "Well, you're a man, aren't you?"

Max elbowed him in the ribs and Alec let his arm drop from her side.

"What, you can't be the only one with hurt ribs?" Alec said in a low whisper.

Logan looked over his shoulder. They sure were acting weird. _Lovers' spat?_ he wondered. He turned back to his computer to hide the sneer he would have given Alec otherwise. "OBQT Pharmaceuticals has been producing a drug and marketing it as a PTSD Aid. Problem is: the drug is lethal twenty-five percent of the time. It's rapidly killing some of our vets."

"And you want us to, what, blow up the labs?" Alec asked.

Max folded her arms. She had thought the same thing.

Logan brought the facility up on his monitor. "Actually, I want to do this the right way so we can bring these guys to justice."

Max's eyes narrowed at the journalist. 'The right way' sounded like an affront to their generous efforts to help him out. "And how do we fit in?"

Logan turned in his swivel chair. "I want you to get paper and/or electronic proof of the drug's existence and obtain a physical sample, and then I can broadcast the evidence and turn it all over to the FDA and the US Department of Health and Human Services."

"You sure you need both of us?" Max repeated, eying Alec in her peripheral.

Alec faced her. "Why do you want to go alone so badly? You think I can't handle it?"

Max took a threatening step forward. "No. I think you don't finish what you start."

Alec's eyebrows rose. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Logan sat back in his chair. This was getting awkward. "Excuse me," he interrupted like a stern parent. "Are you two gonna do this job or not? I don't know if you noticed, but people are dying."

Each put in their place, Max and Alec backed down from one another.

"Yeah, we're in," Max agreed. She glared at Alec.

The job was supposed to be simple. Infiltrate the facility, incapacitate any guards, find a terminal with computer access for them to hack into the mainframe, pull the document proof, find the testing/manufacturing number, pull the sample from the lab, and get everything back to Logan, all without alerting local law enforcement. Simple.

And the first part of the plan worked like a charm. Though seething at one another, Alec and Max worked soundlessly to get into the building. Upon the first run-in with two guards – one short and one tall – and with rigid hand gesture communication, they each agreed to take one guard. Alec tapped one on the shoulder, causing both to turn, and when they did, the transgenic twosome gave right cross jabs in perfect unison, with enough force to knock them out.

"Sorry," Max said to the unconscious guards, leaning down to steal the keycard from the shorter guard.

Alec sat at the first computer they found and Max watched in awe as his fingers flew over the keys. He had the proof of the drug's existence and a location from the sample in one of the laboratories within five minutes. He lowered the system's firewall. "Back door's open," he said. "Come on."

Handing Max the flash drive and leading the way to Lab 46, Alec moved with agility and purpose.

Max pushed the flash drive into her inside jacket pocket. "We're en route to Lab 46," Max said.

Their ear buds cracked to life. "Got it. I'm in," Logan said. "Go to the end of the corridor, turn left. Three doors down on the right."

They found the lab door. Max swiped the key card and the card reader lit up in neon green. They walked in.

"Swipe the badge again at the decontamination chamber," Logan guided.

They hurriedly donned the yellow hazmat suits, checkout out the design of the room. They were in the control area. Once they swiped the keycard, the doors to the first transparent decontamination chamber would open. From there, Logan would override the controls and open the second door to the second decontamination chamber. Finally, he'd open the third set of doors which led to the lab. Max and Alec would find the bin and pull the sample, and then Logan would override controls again to get them back through both chambers, and finally open the doors to let them out, after which Max and Alec would find the easiest way out and rendezvous with Logan back at his place.

Pulling the hooded facepiece over her head and turning on the oxygen in the suit, Max gave Alec a confident look, which was antithetical to how she actually felt. They were both ready.

She swiped the card, and when the doors opened, they entered the chamber. The doors slid shut behind them. "We're in. Door's closed."

"Opening the second chamber," Logan said. They heard a couple of keystrokes before the doors slid open in front of them.

The two transgenics progressed to the next chamber. "Ready," Alec said. The intermediary doors shut.

"Opening the lab," Logan said.

True to his word, Logan opened the doors to the lab and the X5s went to work looking for the sample. It only took nine minutes to find the right bin and one more to package the sample in the airtight container before they headed back toward the chamber.

"Ready," Alec said.

Logan executed the control, letting them back into the decontamination chamber.

As the door to the lab shut behind them, Max set the sample down. She and Alec raised their arms. "Ready," Max said.

Within a few seconds, Logan started the process. A machine hummed to life, pushing a fog of misty solution around them in their suits while a huge fan sucked the mist and potential contaminants out of the room.

When the process was complete, Max said 'ready' again and Logan let them in to the second chamber.

"Okay," Logan said, as if figuring something out. He hesitated.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, taking off the gloves, unzipping her suit, and puling the hood back. Alec mirrored her movements.

"Um…" Logan trailed.

Darkness interrupted him as the whole lab went dark.

"Uh, Logan?" Max asked, pausing mid-bend to look to Alec. He pulled out his cell and used the screen to light the chamber.

They were met with his uneasy voice. "Don't worry, it's only a brownout. Local to the city."

"Well, aren't there supposed to be generators for situations like this?" Alec asked impatiently.

"Those are controlled on site," Logan informed. "Just hang tight. When the generators kick on-"

"In the morning when people get here for work?" Max asked angrily. Spending a whole night with Alec in a decontamination chamber, roughly eight foot by eight foot, seemed like capital punishment. They were supposed to spend time apart.

"Not much I can do from here," Logan said. "I can't force the power back on anymore than I can flip the switch for the generators. Systems go down with power, too."

With the hazmat suit halfway down his legs, Alec strode forward and tried to pull the doors apart.

"Not gonna work, dumbass," Max sneered.

"Worth a shot," he responded. "Might be better than sitting there doing nothing!"

He had meant the comment for Max, and Max was furious, but before she could respond, Logan cut back in.

"Hey! I already said there's nothing I can do! When those guards wake up, they'll know to turn on the generators. My connection will return, and I'll open the doors. Until then-"

They heard him gasp.

"What, Logan?" Max asked.

They heard him quickly moving equipment around.

"Asha, hi!" they heard Logan greet.

"Hey, you mind if I grab a quick shower before we-"

The audio feed went silent.

Alec pointed his screen at Max. She was more miffed than usual.

"Logan!" she called.

Silence.


	10. Time Apart

Two hours later, they were seated in the still-dark chamber, the phone face up between them and its screen showing very little remaining battery. Alec had used the phone to case the parts of the rooms they could see, looking for a way out or for more information. They'd found a camera trained on the entrance of the chamber and noted they'd have to tell Logan to scrub it. No evidence they were even there.

Alec hadn't said much in those 120 minutes, and Max had said even less.

_Jealous? You can tell me, you know._

_No._

_She's gonna shower before they – do something together._

_So?_

_So, aren't you curious what that is?_

Yes, she was. _It's none of my business._

_I'd agree with you, except we're stuck in this cell while they're having a date. Does that seem like he has his priorities in order?_

_No._

_Asha's getting naked, wet and soapy, and Logan's disappeared, and you're not jealous. Right._

_Shut up._

Eventually, it was Alec who brought up the elephant in the room. "What was that? Back at Logan's?"

Max looked down to his phone as the battery power diminished another percent. "Probably ought to conserve the power," she said, climbing to her feet.

Alec also stood. "Answer the question."

Max folded her arms. She took out her ear piece and put it in the mask of the suit. She looked to Alec to do the same, and he complied and then zipped the suit closed. Logan hadn't returned to the comms in two hours, but if they were going to talk about the bathroom or the gym or the sewers, she didn't want him listening in.

Alec waited for her answer. She remained quiet. "Well? What was that?" He tried to sound concerned and not offensive, but some tonal defensiveness seeped through.

Max sighed, frustrated. "I meant exactly what I said. You don't finish what you start."

"_I _don't finish what I start?" he asked sarcastically, grinding his teeth.

"That's what I said."

"I seem to recall that you were the one who told Logan we were together in the first place. You initiated this."

"Why are you so upset I told him that? He saw us together and I improvised. Besides, you're the one who held me up against the wall of the sewer tunnel and said all those… things to me." She thought she was arguing, but when she said it out loud, it sounded as if she had liked what he had said.

If she could see his eyes clearer, she'd see the twinkle of recognition in them. "You want to blame someone so badly, Maxie, then you should blame yourself for holding back."

"What are you talking about?"

"In the bathroom," he said, and she could hear him stepping closer, feel the heat of his body waft into her space.

"You were the one holding back," she countered.

She felt air pulled out of her lungs as Alec pushed his body against hers, pressing her back to the wall of the decontamination chamber. Her heart was pounding in her chest all of the sudden as she felt his hands hold her hips in place against his.

Opening her mouth to protest, Max was quickly silenced by a searing kiss. Alec leaned into her, tilting his head to push his tongue into her mouth. She welcomed it with a slight whimper, her hands rising to his shoulders, to his neck, and eventually to the back of his head, where she pulled him harder against her, despite the complaint of her ribs.

Feeling the warmth pool deep in her body, Max moaned again and Alec backed his hips away to bring his hands between them and unbutton her jeans. He slid her zipper down and halted their kiss.

Max looked left into the second chamber and right into the office as if the transparent walls would reveal a few assistants or researchers who had all gathered there to watch them.

Alec realized she was embarrassed, but he didn't care. He splayed his hand against her abdomen and stared into her eyes, his own creating a fire under her skin while his hand warmed her from the mere touch.

Max took one nervous breath, followed by another, and then another as the temperature rose in the small chamber.

He knew she was nervous as hell and turned on, if the scent of her arousal was any proof. Despite his body's reactions, his mind was a big ball of hesitation. Did she really want this? She wasn't pushing him away, and it certainly seemed like she wanted this, and was this hesitancy what she meant about not finishing what he started? As he mentally steeled himself to take the plunge, Max put her hand over his, turned it the other direction, and guided his hand between her panties and skin.

Alec's breathing hitched as he realized what she'd done. He felt his throat tighten and a wave of lightheadedness washed over him. Rocking back on his heels a moment, he took a breath before Max pulled him back down and pressed her open mouth to his. With her other hand, she gripped his wrist and pushed his hand further down.

As Alec hooked his middle finger under her, he salivated at feeling her center already wet with desire, and felt himself growing harder at the thought of tasting her with slick swipes of his skillful tongue. He groaned as his finger slipped up into her, and she whined while he began a maddeningly fast, deep rhythm, pumping just one digit deep into her, rubbing along her inner walls, exciting her opening with his knuckle.

She broke their kiss to unzip his jacket, but there was no way in hell he would remove his hand from inside her to take the garment off. As if in answer, he swept his other hand from her back to her front and pulled the zipper of her jacket down until the sides hung loose.

Max took the hint and let her jacket fall from her shoulders. Reposting her hands at his neck and head, she pulled Alec until his lips danced down her neck.

Their groans of pulsing pleasure and pants of breathlessness rang out in the chamber in untamed staccato. Somehow, Alec's free hand had found its way to the hem of her shirt, and he pulled up until the black fabric of it rested above her breasts and below her chin. It gave him vision to the curves of her breasts through the small window of skin.

Pulling the right cup of her bra down a scant few inches, then repeating the action on her left cup, Alec bared her round nipples, his pupils dilating at their hardness. He bent to flick his tongue over one of them as his mouth mirrored the unpredictable tempo of his fingers.

Max arched her head back and whined. "Another one," she gasped, pushing his hand against her harder and hanging onto him by the back of his head.

He complied, switching nipples as he added his ring finger to her warm, wet center.

"Harder," she commanded, and he followed the order, rubbing her from the inside out, pressing his fingertips along the ridges inside her, moving his hand in a circular motion to stimulate her opening.

Like a cresting wave, he could feel her building climax. Her eyes shut tight in pleasure and her head tilted back. The look on her face was intoxicating.

Without warning, he grabbed her by the hip and spun her around with his fingers still inside of her. He would have said 'better angle,' but with her back pressed against him, her ass rubbing against his erection, he could feel his fingers moving deeper, both arms wrapped around her – one driving her crazy in the depths of her sex, the other twisting and sweeping at her very erect nipple – and suddenly all language disappeared.

Max's whimpering grew faster and louder. She reached back to stroke his erection. Alec growled in pleasure, gritting his teeth as he pressed and rubbed his thumb against her clitoris, and felt her grasp him tighter, both with her hand and her vaginal muscles. She shuddered as a powerful orgasm rolled through her body. She moaned loudly, throwing her head back into his chest, allowing him vision to her nipples, which peeked out from between her shirt and bra.

She bucked against his hand until the rippling tremors subsided, and took a deep breath, continuing to stroke him from outside his jeans.

Alec was about to start the ministrations again when the power suddenly came back on, lighting the office, chambers, and lab with brightness. Luckily, his back was to the exterior camera and his height masked Max's disheveled state.

He slowly slipped his fingers out of her, much to his dismay (because it meant they'd need to get out of there soon), and heard Max make a small sound of disappointment. It was over. _For now, _he added mentally. He was careful not to wipe the evidence of what they'd just done on her or her clothes.

As he slid his other hand from her breast, using his fingertips to massage her nipple on the way down, he watched as she collected herself, adjusted her pants to fasten the zipper and button, picked up her jacket, and started to turn to face him. He held her shoulder with one hand. "The camera," he said.

She tilted her head to see his face. He looked like a guy who won the lottery but was in shocked disbelief. He smiled, his chin tucked in with a devilish gleam in his eyes.

Max, on the other hand, looked sated. With a deep blush on her face, she adjusted her bra and shirt, minding her bandages, and then looked back up to him. She was about to offer the inside of her pant leg for the juices on his fingers, but didn't get the words out before he licked his fingers. He couldn't help it; she smelled so delicious. Max colored more, embarrassed to be so turned on by the image.

"Can't leave any traces we were ever here," he said explanatorily.

Max bent to get the comms devices out of the hazmat hood, then stood and held one to her ear. "Silent." She looked to Alec's still-raging erection, about to offer to do something about it, when the doors between the chamber and office slid open.


	11. Debriefing Part 1

Covered in freezing cold mud, Max and Alec rode silently back to Logan's, the flash drive and sample safe from the murky dirt. Max seethed from the front of her motorcycle while Alec held on to her hips hesitantly from behind.

_Find your way out, _Max mocked Logan mentally. _Thanks for the support._ She took a tight turn and felt Alec lean forward against her back, inching his hands up around her stomach.

Despite all the mud, she could still smell the heady, masculine scent of his skin underneath the leather, the jeans, the shirt – and it was dividing her attention, making her less and less angry and more and more lustful. She pushed her back against him inconspicuously (or so she thought).

Less than an hour ago, she'd had her first mind-shattering orgasm in over a year, and even then, it had been just his fingers. She backed against his hips in the saddle of the Ninja, rubbing minutely against him, selfishly fantasizing about bouncing up and down with him inside of her and how much more erotic it could be when it wasn't just his (albeit deft) fingers she was riding into oblivion. The mental image made her back against him again, feeling antsy, anxious, and impatient.

Alec was losing it. She kept rubbing against him, warming and exciting him further, and it was as if they hadn't just leapt out onto a tree from the third story only to fall a full story into a freezing cold pit of mud. He had half a mind to pull over and strip them both and guide her hips in a crazy rhythm until her eyes closed and her eyebrows tilted and her fingernails dug into his chest and she screamed out in uncontrollable release.

He shook his head, trying to wash the image from his brain. They had a job to finish, and he needed to concentrate on anything else to reverse the affects she was having on him, because they had to go drop off the flash drive and the container to Logan, and he wasn't keen on having a super awkward interaction with the guy with a Max-induced side of an aching erection.

Max shifted in her seat again and Alec's eyes rolled back in pleasure. He leaned in and spoke in her ear. "You're driving me fucking insane with that-" he paused as she rolled her ass against him, then continue, "Swirly thing you're doing with your hips."

Max almost giggled. "What thing? This?" She rolled her hips again and felt his hands move from her stomach to grasp her hips and hold her still and tight against him.

"We're almost to Logan's," he reminded her.

_Wet blanket._ Max took a deep breath and tried to calm her heartbeat. He was right. They needed to drop the evidence with Logan. Maybe after they could… she refused to finish her thought. _Yet._

* * *

Logan was less than pleased as the two transgenics dragged mud into his penthouse. "Hey guys," he greeted, checking out the varying levels of muck which seemed to cover most of their bodies. He hoped they wouldn't touch anything or sit anywhere or lean against anything. "What happened?"

Alec stepped forward and handed him the small airtight box. "We had to jump out a window," he said. One look to Max confirmed she was getting the same vibe from Logan as he was: ungrateful.

"Did you slip or something?"

Max scowled at him.

"You could say that," Alec said, darkly considering explaining exactly what had slipped, and into what it had slipped, but he held his tongue.

Max glared at him guiltily. She schooled her features and looked to Logan, fishing the flash drive from her inside pocket and handing it to him. "Third story, jumped into a tree, landed in a mud pit."

Logan's pristine white hands accepted the flash drive from her gloved, muddied fingers, getting a smear of mud on his hand. He gave it a disgusted look, but all he said was, "thanks."

"What happened to you earlier?" Alec probed, still sort of angry at the circumstances of getting stuck in the chamber in the first place. He picked the comms devices from his pocket and set them on Logan's desk. "You just disappeared. And we heard Asha-"

Logan looked up, first to Max, then to Alec as he pulled something from his own pocket. It was his comms device, which was broken and in several pieces. "I hadn't heard her come in. I dropped my piece and accidentally rolled over it with my chair." He set the pieces down next to the still-whole ones.

"Uh huh," Alec said disbelievingly. "Which is why she needed a shower."

Max glowered at him, eyes pleading that he shut the hell up.

Logan's eyes narrowed at the blonde X5. "She was covered in – you know what? I don't need to explain any of this to you. Suffice it to say, I had to disengage anyway. Couldn't have her knowing about the Eyes Only mission you were running." Logan stood and pulled a micro-fiber cloth from a nearby shelf. He began cleaning the flash drive.

Alec took a step forward. "You think she doesn't know your secret identity?"

Logan pursed his lips.

Max watched how Logan swiped the material on the flash drive nervously. "It's clean, I promise."

"I've been very careful," Logan said to Alec. He turned to Max. "No harm in double-checking," he said, referring to the flash drive.

"She's no dummy," Alec said. "Anyone who knows you can probably already see that you're Eyes Only."

Sitting back down, and satisfied that he had properly removed and residue from the drive, Logan plugged the USB device into his computer and began sorting through files.

Max looked back to Alec, her eyes asking 'So that's it?'

Alec shrugged. "Anything else we can do for you, or are we free to get out of these clothes and into a shower?"

Without a backward glance, Logan waved them off. "Nope, this should be everything."

As they left, Max noticed a pair of burgundy high heels at the door.

* * *

The drive back to Alec's was just as distracting as the drive to Logan's had been. Alec had never been so happy to ride passenger than he was today, because Max and her taut, lithe little body rubbed against him incessantly and she didn't swat at his hands as he held her hips against him, feeling the vibrations of the machine run through her body and into his. Seemed to him as if she'd taken the long way on purpose, just to torture the hell out of him with this cruel, wonderful game.

He shifted behind her and leaned in. He knew they were getting close to his apartment, but he couldn't help himself anymore. He nuzzled her neck and licked the soft skin below her ear.

Max turned her head and purred her approval. She had, in fact, taken the long way on purpose – but it wasn't to torture the hell out of Alec; well, not just to torture the hell out of him. This new development with him made her thirsty with a rediscovered desire and not only did she want to drag out their play for as long as possible, but somewhere in her subconscious, she also wanted to give herself time to back out of this. Because what if it was just play, and did she want it to be just play? Could they be friends with benefits? Alec seemed like he could be a friends with benefits type of guy.

In her current state, all she could truly focus on was what transgenic stamina could mean for them.

She made a sudden turn down an alley and drove to the next major street, where the two soldiers found themselves in front of Alec's apartment building.

Alec frowned as she cut the engine. At least she wasn't keeping the engine running and kicking has ass to the curb, but whatever had just happened at the facility left him feeling as if the details and their meanings were all in limbo somewhere.

Alec dismounted the cycle and stepped around the Ninja to face Max. She hadn't swung a leg off of her bike yet. She looked to be holding a mental debate before finally, her eyes met his and she hesitated.

"Thanks… you know, for earlier," she managed to push out.

He wondered if it was for the amazing thing that'd happened in the decontamination chamber or if it was her gratitude for his not telling Logan about their exploits, or if it was for still playing along even though they had kind of been fighting.

He also wondered if the fingering and the motorcycle rides were her excuses to get some play, to scratch an itch; and that thought left him feeling used. To him, the reality was that Max loved Logan and was only entertaining Alec's advances because Alec could actually touch her, please her. She wanted him to use her. It was her taking pity on herself since she couldn't be with the man she loved.

The quasi-nervous smile fell from his face as he gave her a noncommittal, "Sure, no problem."

Max detected the change in his demeanor. It was like he had just done a favor for a friend. "So, you got plans for the rest of the night?"

"It's 3AM. I plan on getting this caked mud off of my body and sleeping until the year 2050."

His simple answer, completely devoid of the innuendo for which she'd purposely left the question open, convinced Max that he really wasn't interested in anything more than a physical arrangement. And not even that tonight.

She nodded resolutely. "Alright. Catch you at Command in a bit." Her engine revved to life and she sped off into the night.


	12. Debriefing Part 2

_Shit. What the hell am I doing?_

Alec paced outside Max's apartment as quietly as possible so as not to wake Max – if she was actually asleep (he doubted it). Hopefully she wouldn't wake up.

_Who are you kidding?_ he asked himself. _You want her to wake up and come to the door with nothing on, and take you to bed. Even if it's just a fuck to her, it's something._

It'd taken him the better part of an hour to get to her apartment. He had to gather clean clothes and a towel and the courage, and not shower to fulfill his cover story: he needed to use her shower because his shower had busted pipes. (It didn't.)

_Fuck. Just do it,_ he thought. He raised a hand to knock lightly, but before his knuckles hit the door, it swung open with a tiny squeak to reveal Max.

She wore a baby blue tank top with tiny little black panties. And she looked not at all sleepy. Her hair was down and cascaded around her in a waterfall of softness, and all the parts of her exposed skin looked thirsty for contact and so smooth that he had to fist his hands in his clean clothes and towel to keep from reaching out. More than all of that, the look in her eyes made his heart beat faster and his mouth run dry.

"Hi," she said so softly that it could have been a whispered purr.

_Yes, you can do this._ "Hi," he said in a low, deep voice. "Can I borrow your shower? Mine's busted."

Max turned sideways to invite him in. She locked the door as he sauntered in, and turned to lead him to the bathroom. Not like he didn't know where it was; she wanted him to see her ass. _Because, _she thought, _why else would he be here? There are plenty of other showers he could 'borrow.' _ She swayed her hips exaggeratedly and heard him take a deep breath as he followed her into the bathroom.

"Her you go," she said.

He had to follow through with the lie, now. Stepping past her, he set his clean clothes on the toilet lid, his clean towel on top of that, and opened the shower curtain to turn on the water. He heard the door close and silently berated himself for spitting absolutely no game whatsoever. '_Can I borrow your shower'? Stupid! Why is it I have nothing clever to say?_

He mentally catalogued some of his former pickup lines, toeing off his boots and pulling off his socks. Why couldn't he just say what was on his mind?

Alec let his jacket fall off. He set it on his boots under the towel rack, its hanging occupant already wet, presumably from Max's shower. He pulled his tee shirt over his head and heard a slight gasp. Turning around slowly, his shirt succumbed to gravity and fell to the tops of his feet.

"Max," he said. He was surprised to see her standing there – he thought he had been left alone – but it had sounded more like a sensual whisper.

Max stepped forward, one foot directly in front of the other, until she was toe to toe with him. She stared into his eyes as he willed himself not to panic. Though his heart rate was climbing, and despite the, at best, lukewarm water, the temperature was also climbing, he stood statue-still, watching Max's movements.

She placed both hands on his chest and dragged them both down, using her fingernails to lightly scrape his nipples, bringing them to attention almost immediately, and continued caressing down until the expanse of him was interrupted by his jeans. Without breaking their stare, Max took a breath and curled her fingers around the waist of the denim. She unzipped his zipper and unbuttoned his jeans as he raised his hands to her arms, rubbing lightly along her lean muscles. She was as silky smooth as he had imagined.

Placing her hands at his sides, she dug her fingertips into his hips, sliding her palms between his boxers and his skin until her thumbs caught on the materials. She kept pushing the material down, revealing the dark trail of hair which led down to his constricted, erect shaft.

With every inch, she kept Alec's stare, her pupils dilating at the anticipation of what she might find and what they might do. She licked her lips, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth for a moment, before she pushed the material off of his hips. His boxers and jeans landed in a pool at his feet.

Alec bent to kiss her, but before his lips could touch hers, she pushed at one of his shoulders and pulled at the other, turning him to face the shower. He looked over his shoulder to her expectant stare, and when she smacked his ass, he took the hint and climbed into the shower.

With his back to the spray, he waited.

Max pulled the shower curtain closed.

"You're not gonna join me?" he asked, his deep voice seeping out of the shower like bass from a stereo.

He heard the shower curtain move from behind him, and he turned to see a completely naked Max under the spray, her previously dry hair getting soaked from the water.

He watched her for direction, to wait for what she wanted to do. To his surprise, she pulled him against her, pushing his erection between their stomachs, so that he was under the spray, too, and slid her tongue down the center of his chest, bending once she reached his abdomen, and then kneeling once she passed his belly button.

Gripping his shaft tightly, Max pumped him twice, the water running all around and over her, and then took him past her plump lips and into her warm, wet mouth.

Letting his head fall back at the contact, Alec took a deep breath and flexed the muscle as she pressed her lips around him and used the tip of her tongue to draw a line down his penis. As far down toward his base as she could get, she sucked as if she could somehow get air into the airtight chamber, around which her mouth had created an impenetrable seal. The sensation made him feel as though, if she could, she would suck him inside out. He moaned, one hand bracing the wall and the other finding the side of her face.

Max pushed down again, lightly grazing the smooth skin of his shaft with her teeth and dabbing the flat of her tongue against him in little licks as she sucked again.

He gave a contented sigh at her ministrations and felt her create a slow rhythm. The impending danger she created with her teeth drove him to excitement. He closed his eyes in slight dizziness as he felt the blood rush to the naturally ribbed parts of his engorged sex.

Gripping the base of his shaft with one hand, Max slipped him out of her mouth, letting the collected mixture of water and Alec fall out of her mouth and onto his tip, over which she lathed her tongue in circles and kissed, her lips dancing lightly along the surface. She rubbed her lips on the surface of his erection, took a moment to stroke him again, and looked up through the spray, past his sculpted chest and to his face.

His face was the epitome of pure bliss. With his eyes closed and head partially tilted back, his mouth was agape and his cheeks flushed from the marvelous sensations she created with those full, soft lips and skillful tongue. He opened his eyes and looked down to her.

Sliding her free hand up the back of his thigh, she pressed her fingers into the muscle of his ass, pulling him forward while simultaneously massaging his cheek, and took him back into her mouth. Eye contact unbroken, Alec jerked forward unconsciously, finding the look in her eyes intolerably sexy. The depth of her wanton stare could have made him come right then, but she cupped and caressed his balls confidently before circling her thumb and forefinger around the base of him, applying the perfect amount of pressure to drive him crazy.

He groaned again as she tickled through his pubic hair with her three free fingers and started moving quicker, up and down, pressing her lips and tongue against and around him with varying degrees of intensity. She pulled him further into her mouth by his rear end, and with the madness of her teeth, lips and tongue, hurried the rhythm, sucking him until he panted with the want for release.

"Max, I'm getting really close," he warned, barely any presence of control left to let her decide how she wanted him to finish.

Max hummed in approval, releasing the circle around the base of his shaft but continuing with the insane pace and the skillful sweeps of her tongue and the gentle tickle from her fingers, and the-

_Oh my god,_ he thought. _Where the hell did she learn to do this?_

Max was humming – some song he'd never heard of – and the tiny but powerful vibrations started at the tip of his slick muscle and ebbed throughout his entire body, lighting him on fire from the inside out. He lowered his other hand to her head and gently guided her.

He let out a broken breath. "I'm gonna come," he said softly through gritted teeth.

Undeterred, Max kept the pace and music of her ministrations, and, coupled with the sensations of the water beating down on them and rushing over their skin, Alec came into her mouth, breathing heavily as he felt her throat gently massaging his tip as she swallowed his emissions. She slowed down her movement as he completed his orgasm, and slowly pushed at his hips so he would slip out of her mouth.

She looked up to him, a completely sated look on his face, an utter calm washing over his body. Proudly, Max tried to get one foot under her, and was surprised to see his open hand offering to help her up. Taking his offer, she climbed to her feet.

With a dopey, lazy smile on his lips, Alec bent to kiss her, but before their lips could touch, a knock came at the door.

"Suga, just wanted to let you know I'm home. Original Cindy's beat like a prizefighter, though, so I'm gonna hit the hay."

Max and Alec looked to one another as if they'd already been caught. Though Alec still had the look of lust with a promise of returning the favor plastered all over him, Max was damn near laughing with embarrassment.

He touched her arm and let his hand slide down her arm toward her hip, where she had a pretty good idea of what he intended to do with that hand and those fingers. "Your turn," he whispered.

Max captured his hand and held it at her hip, smiling. "We can't, you have to go," she whispered back. She let go of his hand and he pouted as she pulled the shower curtain back and stepped out onto the mat, grabbing her still-damp towel and wrapping it around her body. "Come on," she said.

"But… the shower," he said, trying to find any excuse to stay. After the best damn blowjob of his life, who could blame him for wanting to stay and play?

Max scoffed. "You can take one at your place," she said, calling his bluff from earlier. "Come on, you can't be here when she wakes up."

He smiled guiltily and bent to turn off the shower. "You could always come home with me."

Max stepped into her panties and inched them up under her towel. Alec gave her a look to suggest how unfair it was that he didn't get to see her naughty bits while she dressed. "Another time," she said. She picked up her shirt and turned so her back was to him. She unwrapped the towel and pulled on her top, turning back around as she pressed the hem of her shirt down.

Unabashedly naked, Alec stepped out of the shower stall and picked up his towel from the toilet lid, letting it unfold as he pressed it to his body. He swung the middle of it over his head and rubbed it over his hair unceremoniously before pulling it down his chest.

Max's pupils dilated again. She debated sneaking him to her room, but she knew that in the throes of passion she could get loud, not to mention the respect she had for her roommate and the fact that she didn't want to let anyone in on the apparent secret of their unsaid arrangement. Alec redressed quickly, but she wouldn't let him put his boots on until he was out of the apartment. She pushed him toward the door, his hands full of a wet towel and dirty clothes and his still-muddy boots, seeing the way he watched her lips curl in a flirtatious smile before she pushed him out the door. "See you tomorrow, Alec," she said quietly.

He let his eyes travel up her body, where they landed in her stare. She was genuinely pleased, and he felt he was one step closer to unraveling the mysterious Max.

Alec wouldn't bother with his boots until the stairwell, and as Max watched him leave, she pushed the door shut as gently as possible and turned around to lean against it.

"You wanna tell me what hottie makin' you get wet at four in the mornin'?" Original Cindy asked, one hand on her hip and her eyes looking particularly tired.

Max planted herself in front of the door, unwilling to let OC open it to find out who had been with her. "Just felt like a shower," she said nonchalantly.

"Mm-hmm," OC said. "And I'm George Washington."

Max gave her an innocent smile, barely hearing the latch on the stairwell door before stepping away from their apartment door and padding slowly back to her room. "Good night, Mr. President."


	13. Arousing Suspicion

Striding into Jam Pony confidently, Alec pulled his gloves off, spotting Max changing out of her sweater and into a raincoat at the back of the establishment. He smiled, catching an enhanced glimpse of her barcode as her hair slipped through the neck hole of the blue fabric. She must have had some kind of Alec-radar, because as he approached her, she turned to face him.

"Hey." He leaned against the locker as she pulled the raincoat over her head and adjusted it at her arms and waist.

Max gave an embarrassed, almost imperceptible smile and looked down. "Hey."

The air between them seemed loaded with partial awkwardness and partial electricity. They hadn't had time to talk about what happened, yet, but if what Alec knew about best friends was true, there might be one person who knew about them. "So, did you get grilled by OC this morning?"

Raising her stare to his, Max pursed her lips, attempting not to smile. She spoke in a low whisper which Alec found sultry. "She may have attempted to find out what hottie was responsible for making me, and I quote, 'get wet at four in the mornin'." She chuckled lightly at Original Cindy's use of the language.

"And what did you tell her?"

Max shut her locker door. "Told her I just felt like a shower."

"Did she buy it?"

As if caught, Max smiled guiltily. "Nope, but I didn't give her an opportunity to press further." She slung her pack over her head and adjusted the diagonal strap across her chest. "Ducked out this morning before she woke up."

Alec rocked forward onto the balls of his feet, refraining from reaching out to touch her. What was it about this woman that made him always want to reach out? _Oh, yeah, _he ceded mentally. _Stone cold, sarcastic, somewhat sadistic, challenging, intelligent leader-of-my-nation._ "You could have stopped by. I was up all night."

She let the innuendo hang in the air a moment as they locked eyes. _I bet you were, _she thought. A slight blush crept up into her cheeks and the energy under the surface of Alec's skin wound itself into a big ball of flirtatious excitement. Before she could respond, Original Cindy rounded the corner, exiting the women's restroom.

She looked a little tired, undoubtedly from the previous night. "Hey, suga," she greeted Max. She opened her locker and pulled out her pack and gloves. "Did you end up catchin' any Zs last night?"

Max attempted to school her features. "Um, no, I was kind of… wired after my shower," she said.

"Burning the midnight oil?" Alec asked, trying to make it seem like he had no clue what she'd been doing last night.

"Something like that." Max pulled on her gloves.

Original Cindy gave her a suspicious look, her brow curved in disbelief. "Yeah, more like you were entertaining and creepin' on the DL."

Scoffing, Max pulled on her gloves. "Please."

Original Cindy smiled. "Yeah, and who was the lucky creep?" She folded her arms like a stern parent.

"Like I told you last night, I was alone." The slender brunette kept a straight face. "Now, we all have a job to do." Max made her way toward dispatch.

Original Cindy looked to Alec, expectantly. "Tell me somethin', hot boy. Do you know who tracked mud into my bathroom last night?"

Alec smirked and raised his brows in surprise, noticing how Original Cindy unceremoniously checked out the condition of his boots. He felt the urge to thank Manticore for the years of regimen, as he was, in fact, up all night thinking about Max. Thinking about Max and scrubbing his boots, like Manticore taught him. "Oh, right. I wish," he answered, seeing the slightly embarrassed but satisfied look on OC's face. "Maybe Max fell into a pit of mud last night and dragged it in herself." He laughed.

"Alright, suga, if you say so." Original Cindy ceded, letting the subject go for now. She looped her arm through his and they started toward dispatch. "You comin' to Crash tonight?"

* * *

It was early evening by the time Alec reached Terminal City. He had borrowed one of the few pool vehicles to meet up with the nurse, Gary, whom had traded him the two older models of ultrasound machines in exchange for the two tinder boxes full of expensive Cuban cigars. Mole was probably going to kill him for raiding his stash, but there were at least two dozen pregnant Xs and healthcare was of paramount concern.

After setting Doc Erin up in Med Bay with the two machines, and receiving a heartfelt 'thank you,' Alec made his way toward Max's office to let her know about the new items, and the possible new contact which they might be able to tap for other equipment.

As he neared her office and heard something he hadn't heard in a while: Max, laughing. He paused in the hallway, listening for the reason.

"And of course there's always "Is that Windex in your pocket? 'Cause I can clearly see myself in your pants,'" said Mike.

Alec reeled. _Mike_ was the one spouting ridiculous pick-up lines to Max? What the hell?

"That's not the worst," Max said, and Alec could hear the smile in her voice.

It sounded like she was about to tell him the worst pick-up line she'd heard, when Alec peeked around the corner to see Mike sitting pretty close to Max on her office couch. Max looked almost carefree, and, he noticed, was not scowling or scrounging her features toward the X4. Mike, on the other hand, looked as though he was about to go all-in on this flirt.

"Yeah," Mike said, "I know. How come people can't just be straight with each other, you know?" He looked into her eyes. "Say something like, 'I'm interested in you, why don't you tell me a little more about yourself?'"

Grinding his teeth, Alec narrowed his eyes in the hallway. Had Mike missed the memo on 'Bros Before Hoes'? Hadn't they just discussed that Alec and Max's relationship was a complicated game?

Affecting an heir of nonchalance, Alec took a few steps backward, and then let his footfalls make more noise than usual to alert them both to his incoming presence. "Well, she's a Pisces with a sharp wit and a mile-long angry streak, who likes long walks on rocky beaches with philanthropic, secret superheroes."

Max's smile fell. How long had he been standing there?

Mike stood up, embarrassed to have been caught, and gave Alec a nervous smile. "Just asking Max, here, about the vehicle requests," he defended. He looked over to Max. "Thanks for getting that, by the way."

Max nodded, smiling politely as Mike made his way out of the room. Once Mike was clear of earshot, she glared at Alec. "What the hell was that?"

Alec crossed his arms. He shouldn't be angry, right? They were just going to be friends with benefits, right? He had no reason to be jealous – Max wasn't into him like that. "Sorry," he said. "Just came by to let you know I got the ultrasound machines. They're not the latest and greatest, but they will work for what we need."

Max stood, crossed the room, and closed her door. Turning back to Alec, she whispered, "Look, you can't go jumping down people's throats for no reason."

Chiding himself for coming across as jealous, Alec gritted his teeth again.

"It was innocent, not that I have to explain that to you," she continued. "After this morning with OC, I figured we might think about being a little more discreet. She already suspects something is up."

_So this is all an act?_ Alec wondered. "Yeah, she asked me if I knew who'd tracked mud into your bathroom, and then very obviously checked out my boots."

Max looked down to Alec's boots. As far as muddy went, they were pristine. She sighed in relief. "What'd you tell her?"

He smiled. "That maybe you fell into a mud pit and dragged it in yourself."

Her face lit up in a bright smile and she laughed. "The truth," she said. She held his gaze for a couple seconds in silence. Her smile fell to something a little more suggestive as she looked away coyly. "Well, some of it." She looked back up to him.

He felt his skin heat up at her admission.

Twisting her body away from him, she tried to force herself to stop feeling so turned on by his attention. "It was a close call with Cindy. I was thinking, that, well, maybe… maybe we should be a little more standoffish to each other when there are other people around. Or at least not give them reason to believe we're, you know, doing anything."

For Alec, it was like a sucker punch. She wanted his body and nothing else? Well, fine then, that's what she would get. "Fine," he said. With no further hesitation, he exited her office.

Once again alone in her office, Max sat down and gave a frustrated sigh, surprised and hurt that he hadn't attempted to negotiate at all. She was only trying to respect his rules, but now it seemed it was going to be over before it really even began.


	14. Flirting With Disaster

He'd been at Crash for an hour nursing his Scotch, when the first woman had approached him. Blonde hair, average rack, short legs. Usually the type of girl he could talk into bed inside of a paragraph, but the first words out of her mouth made it seem like her IQ might be barely above her bra size. Dispatching her gently, he returned to his liquor.

In the glass mirror behind the bar, he saw Max, OC and Sketchy descending the stairs and grabbing the nearest empty table. _Perfect, _he thought, watching as they seemed to settle in.

Original Cindy made her way toward the bar, eying his back as she approached. She requested four glasses and a pitcher of beer from the tender, and as he prepared her order, OC turned her attention o Alec. "You gonna come join us?"

Savoring his drink to avoid answering, Alec hesitated. Swallowing the ale, he said, "Maybe in a bit."

OC's smile faded. "Somethin' buggin' you, boo?"

In the mirror's reflection, he saw Max and Sketchy laughing, most likely from the dazzling story Sketch was telling her about having some dude named 'Herbal' walk in on him while he was entertaining a lady. And in the reflection and even from a distance, he could see Max was having fun. He turned to face OC again. "I'm alright," he said, giving her an obligatory smile. "I guess I'm just not feelin' the group drink. Just give me a few."

Nodding, OC said, "There's a pint waiting for you when you decide to join us."

In her absence, a petite brunette approached him. Though she shared similarities with Max, this girl had applied a heavy couple of layers of makeup, particularly around her eyes, probably in an attempt to create the smoky eye look; unfortunately, she'd achieved a slightly ghostly demeanor instead.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Max watching him. He grinned with the idea of payback and lavished a cheeky smirk at the woman. "Hi. I'm Alec. What's your name?"

"Cherish."

His brows rose in mock surprise. "Cherish, huh? Well," he started, downing the remainder of his drink before continuing, "Can I buy you a drink, Cherish?"

She looked up to him from under long lashes. "Patron?"

"Excellent choice." He nodded and called the bartender over. "Two shots of Patron for me and the lady."

From across the bar, Max tried to keep her cool. _What the hell was he doing with that little wannabe? And Cherish?_ (She'd heard their conversation – the curses of transgenic hearing.) _Come on_.

Original Cindy turned back toward Max, shaking her head at Sketchy's antics. He had already engaged himself in a game of pool with a guy she knew was an excellent player. "That fool is glutton for punishment," she said, her good mood quickly turning into concern for her friend. "And who, exactly, is breakin' ya neck, girl?" Cindy followed Max's line of sight and landed on Alec and the wisp of a tiny little woman, into whose space he seemed to be leaning. "Who's' that?" she asked, her lips turning downward.

"Cherish," Max said, mocking the girl in a whispery, whiney voice. She didn't want Alec listening in to their conversation, because then he'd know she was listening in to his. "Doesn't matter anyway, it's just so disgusting what he's doing."

They saw Alec charming the girl effortlessly, his smile, sexy with clear intention, and his stature itself flirtatious. He would most likely suggest something provocative, and Cherish (_or whatever her name is_) would fall right into his lap, let him have his way with her, and beg him for more when it was all over.

Catching Max's behavior in his peripheral vision, Alec decided to up the ante. He lifted his hand and caressed the woman's arm, leaning in and whispering something to her. They both laughed.

Max fumed from a distance. Just last night she'd had the endowed part of the man in her mouth, and this was what it all meant to him?

Original Cindy, observing how Alec's head twitched in their direction but never fully turned, had an inkling as to what Alec was doing. What she didn't know was why he was doing it at all. She quietly considered that the quasi-hostile aggression shared between her two transgenic friends may be transforming into the sexual tension they thought didn't exist.

_Only one way to find out,_ OC thought, wondering if Max would admit it, or take the bait, or insist otherwise. "Hey, boo?"

Max turned her attention to her friend.

"You think that little honey looks a little bit like you?"

Looking disgusted, Max said, "You think she looks like me? Geez, Cin, tell me how you really feel."

"Come on, you have to admit there are some similarities."

"You think so?"

OC nodded.

"I don't see it. Besides that, she's not really his type."

OC lifted a brow. "What do you mean?"

"He likes women who look like models from Busty Blonds Magazine, not smart little brunettes."

"And just how do you know that?" OC took a drink of her beer as if it punctuated her point.

Their conversation was interrupted by Mike, towering over their table. He set down a pitcher full of beer. "Next round's on me," he offered.

Forcing herself to purposefully not watch Alec, Max smiled at Mike. "Thanks."

Mike hesitated a moment. He wiped his hands on his jeans and took a breath. "Max?"

"Yeah?"

He looked down to the pitcher for a second, then allowed his nervous stare to drift up to her expectant one. "Uh… you wanna dance?"

As if timed, Cherish laughed loudly, every breath involved grating on Max's nerves. She smiled tightly at Mike. It was her opportunity to turn the tables on Alec. "Sure."

A slow R&B ballad was playing, and as Max took Mike's sweaty hand, he led her out to the dance floor. It was awkward, not just because after not touching another man outside of heat (besides Alec) for the past two years, she hesitated at circling her arms around Mike's neck, but also because the parts of his skin that she touched felt wrong. Plus, he was so much taller than her – even taller than Alec.

Placing his hands at her hips, Mike began swaying to the music, guiding Max side to side. "So, how's your day going?" Mike asked, looking down to Max. She seemed a little distant.

Max looked up to him, craning her neck just to see his face clearer. "Um, it's fine," she answered noncommittally. _Yeah, 'fine' if by 'fine' you mean pissed off at Alec for his constant cockiness and greediness. He already has a friend with benefits and there he is, lining up another one. Well, two can play at that game._

Max leaned closer to Mike, letting her torso brush up against him.

Mike cleared his throat as she began to move her body in small undulations. Slow dancing with Max was even sexier than he had imagined. He took a breath, trying to calm himself down, trying to remind himself that Alec kind of, sort of was maybe, possibly interested in Max, and despite Mike's own pure size, Alec still outranked him and would give him the beatdown of a lifetime if he made a move on someone or something Alec thought was his.

Back across the bar, Alec pocketed Cherish's number and, as the ghostly brunette walked away, he looked back to where Max should have been seated, only to discover her chair was empty. He scanned the bar and the groups of people before the small crowd of people on the dance floor parted slightly to reveal Max was on the dance floor. _With Mike_.

_That son of a bitch!_ he thought, standing up. _Oh, hell, no! _

Alec threw a twenty on the bar and walked toward the dance floor. A few steps from the floor, Original Cindy stepped in front of him.

"Sit," she said, gesturing to their table.

Alec looked to Mike, ire in his eyes, then back down to OC.

"Boy, don't make me say it twice. He's not going anywhere. You can still beat the snot out of him afterwards. Now, you got something to say, and so do I, so you best do what I say and listen to the gospel." Cindy grabbed his shoulders and pulled him toward the table, then pushed him down to a seated position.

"Okay, I'm seated. What?"

"Don't get sharp with me, boo. Transgenic or not, I will still smack yo' fine ass into next week."

He took a breath. "You were saying…?"

OC sat in Max's seat. "What's botherin' you, suga?"

Alec shrugged nonchalantly, then caught the image of Max rubbing herself up against Mike like an attention-starved kitten. "What the hell is she doing with him?"

Hiding her smile, OC nodded. "I thought that's what this was about." She looked over her shoulder to see Max and Mike continuing their near-sensual slow dance. She turned back to Alec. "I guess she likes 'em big."

_The fuck?_ Alec thought. Was Cindy just as blinded as Max was? "Big, dumb and full of'"

"Boy, you finish that sentence 'n' you gon' be eatin' my fist."

Alec shut his mouth. If they weren't going to talk, he wasn't going to stick around. "Look, sorry, but I gotta blow. I'm starving and I'm not feelin' the fried bar food." He stood up and looked out to the dance floor, zeroing his hearing into Max and Mike's conversation.

"Uh, Max, can I ask you a question?" Mike began, a sweet smile gracing his features.

Max slowed her rolling movements, looking over toward the bar. He was much closer now. In fact, he was at their table, talking with OC and staring at them in disbelief. She looked back to Mike. "Sure, what's up?"

"I, uh… I wanted to ask you…" he started, his nerves getting the better of him. He took another breath.

Max waited what she thought was patiently, a small, reassuring smile meant to put him more at ease.

"Are you and Alec…" he trailed, refraining from allowing his fingers to fidget at her curvy hips.

Eyes widening, Max panicked. If she answered 'yes,' then she was certain whatever contact she and Alec shared would definitely be over – because Alec didn't want what they did to be public knowledge. But if she answered 'no,' Mike might try to start something with her, and though he was a nice enough guy, she didn't want to have to reject him.

And on top of all that, she thought Alec might be listening. Unable to stop herself, she looked over to Alec and they locked eyes. He was listening.

Certain she appeared concerned, Max tried to mask it with a sneer. Alec, on the other hand, had completely ignored whatever OC had just said in favor of torturing himself by watching Max rub indiscriminately closer to Mike than he would have liked. Angrily, he pushed away from the table, grabbed his jacket, and headed toward the back exit.

Max looked back to Mike. "I'll be right back," she said, disengaging from his embrace. "Restroom." Hurrying past Original Cindy, she made her way out the back.

Mike stood on the dance floor, arms outstretched questioningly.

Original Cindy poured him a pint and waved him over. "Suga, you caught in a deadly game, and Original Cindy believes you best use your upstairs head before one of 'em takes it off."

* * *

Max threw open the back door and stalked after Alec. "Hey," she shouted.

He turned in the gravelly, empty parking lot. "What?"

"What the hell is your problem?"

_There she is. Attack Max. _He loved the fire in her eyes, but didn't like that he had to incite her to see it. She always seemed as if she was on the attack. "Nothing. I don't have one."

"Then why are you leaving us alone?"

"You didn't look so alone in there," he said.

"I was only trying to make it seem less, you know, obvious…" she trailed, suddenly on the defensive. But she'd be damned if he held no accountability in the matter. "Besides, I was just following your lead."

"_My _lead," he repeated, thinking back through the day. He chuckled, more to himself than to her. His 'lead' had just been a ruse anyway. "I thought you wanted to be more discreet and appear more standoffish?" he recalled from their earlier conversation.

"This isn't easy for me, you know. I've never done this before; I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know the rules or how we're supposed to be in public. You, you're the only one I've ever, you know…"

_And, back to vulnerable Max. _This was the Max he liked most. The honest one. The one who didn't have to put on a show. It transformed him from angry to understanding, and somewhat horny. In a low voice, he said, "Okay, apology accepted."

Her eyes widened. "Apology? Who's apologizing?"

He ignored her protest. "Though that doesn't mean I'm not gonna hand Mike his own overgrown sasquatch ass for it somehow. Come on, I'm hungry."

She smiled and nodded toward the bar. "We can eat at Crash if you're hungry."

Alec returned the smile, offering a heady stare to her. His eyes twinkled with mischief. "Not what I meant."


	15. A Healthy Appetite

Max shut the door behind her as Alec pulled two tumblers from the cupboard and a bottle of vodka from the freezer. "Shot?"

"Definitely," she answered, peeling her sweater up and over her head. She draped it on his single barstool at the extensive kitchen island.

Passing the shot glass over the countertop, Alec nodded. He raised his shot glass to her.

She wasn't sure to what he was toasting, and it was quiet enough as the desire sparked between them that she refrained from speaking and ruining the mood, so she silently raised her glass to mirror the toast before they both threw back their shots. Alec refilled their glasses.

Nervous, Max kept her mouth shut, trying to figure out what she was supposed to say. Should she just go for it – start kissing him and see where they let it take them? Or should she just play the game? Did she even remember how to play the game? Certainly the bathroom BJ required no words. _That was one tactic…_

Finally, after taking the second shot, she pushed her hair over her shoulders. "So, what's on the menu?" _Stupid,_ she thought, averting her eyes the moment his warm stare burned into her.

Alec waited for her to look back. After what felt like an eternity, she finally raised her eyes to his. "You are."

Swallowing awkwardly, Max set her hand on the corner of the island.

"It's the least I could do after what you did for me," he added, circling around the island to stand next to her. He placed a warm hand at her shoulder.

She resisted turning, which he took as a sign. "Unless," he said, removing his hand.

Lightning speed and with a grip like a vise, her hand snatched his in mid air, halting his backward motion. She pulled his hand back to her shoulder and turned to face him fully. "Are you saying…?"

Alec smiled both guiltily and confidently. "I'm saying tonight, it's 'dine in'."

Max pressed her lips together, blushing slightly. "I just – I –"

"What?" he asked, eyes imploringly surprised. "You never had oral before?"

Max reddened, completely embarrassed at his quick detective work and total comfort with the topic.

"That's not it," she said. "It did happen one time, but I was in heat and it didn't do anything. It was just-" She looked away, trying to find the right word. "Maddening."

He let his hand slide over her shoulder and down her arm as he stepped closer, the warmth from his body wafting like fog over her skin. How did he do that – make everything so sensual?

Max took another nervous breath. "He kept trying and trying, licking," she said, watching Alec's eyes glaze over with lustful fire. "Sucking," she continued, watching his tongue between parted lips, and she knew her pupils were slowly dilating. "Nibbling," she continued, "until I finally told him to stop – it wasn't doing anything for me."

Shaken slightly out of the trance, Alec brought his other hand to her other arm. "You've only received oral once? " he asked in disbelief.

Max nodded, looking down to his hands, which were busy at her sides rubbing the curves of her hips before curling fingers crept under the hem of her shirt. He dragged her shirt upward.

"And it was during heat?" he questioned further.

Max raised her arms as Alec divested her of her shirt. He laid the garment on top of her sweater and she nodded in answer to his question.

"Well, that explains it," he said.

"What?"

And then his fingers were at her jeans, unbuttoning them. He pulled down the zipper and began inching his fingers down the sides of her hips, the denim revealing her skin in small slivers. She toed off her boots and shimmied with his movements until her pants were mid-thigh.

Wrapping his hands at her sides, he lifted her into a seated position on the cold tiles of the kitchen island and continued pulling off her jeans. "You've just never had someone do it right." He pulled her socks off, too. "For good measure."

Max blushed again and smiled. Left only in her bra and panties, she felt nervously excited about this new experience. Of course the smart-aleck would boast his facility with his mouth. And he watched every breath she took like he could barely wait to devour her. "I'm starting to feel a little overdressed."

"You want me to take something off?" He smiled, as though she'd just admitted she was actually attracted to him. His smile crooked up on one side and he did not break their eye contact until he pulled his shirt over his head by the back of the neck.

Max drank in the sight of him, his smooth, lean musculature begging for her attention. She looked back up to him. "What makes you think you 'do it right'?" Okay, this flirting thing was coming back to her.

Raising a brow, Alec chuckled. He approached her, pressing his torso against hers, her knees at his sides. He slid his hands from her hips to her ribcage and then back around to her bra, where he managed to unhook it with ease. "Heat is about one thing and one thing only: instinct," he breathed, his face somewhere between her mouth and breasts. "It doesn't want a tongue – it wants the union of bodies."

His words blew warm puffs of breath against her collarbone and breastbone. Catching her bra straps on his fingers, he swept rough, calloused hands over her shoulders, the garment easily lifted away from her skin, giving Alec proof of her arousal. He glanced down, thinking how delicious her nipples looked. He swallowed hard. "Muscles within muscles, skin in skin, rubbing at exactly the right rhythm, matching frequencies and satisfying those starved instincts –"

Max felt her nipples harden further under his continued stare. He was talking about the rough, needful sex of heat, and it made her impatient and anxious at the concept of actually having sex with him. Absentmindedly, she wondered if this was the same set of lines that'd been so successful with other women, but the thought pushed out of her brain as he pressed her shoulders back until she rested her elbows on the countertop. She watched as he hooked his fingers at the sides of her panties and pulled them down. She raised her hips to help him slide them down her hips, legs, and then off.

She laughed nervously, lightly, thinking that she was his buffet tonight, and she just wasn't sure what to expect. Awkwardness? Pleasure?

"But that's not what this is about," Alec started up again, dropping her panties and sliding his hand up the side of her leg.

"It's not?"

His fingertips slid past her knee to her thigh, his other hand's digits raising her leg by the knee so her heel rested flat on the countertop. Hooking his left hand under her right knee, he pulled her toward the edge of the counter, the act of which made her lay on her back to release her elbows and spread her legs further apart to accommodate his body.

"No, this is about pure pleasure, and it is driven by a different kind of instinct."

Max watched the slight curve of his lips, always on the verge of smirking, as they formed the words currently making her center warmer and wetter.

Glancing down to the junction of her legs, Alec's pupils dilated quickly. "My instinct," he said, bending toward her right leg and pressing soft kisses at the inside of her thigh. "Your instinct to have a man taste you and find you irresistible, and find the perfect," he paused, sliding the stretched tip of his tongue toward her core, "combination," he added, pausing again to slide his right hand up the back of her left thigh, easily lifting her hips up a scant few inches. "Of movements-"

Nearly panting with anticipation, Max let her head fall back against the counter.

"-to drive you-"

She could feel his breath lightly caressing her pubic hair, and shuddered, her body wound tight, unsure if she could bare it if he was good, if he made her crazy.

"-completely mad."

Max closed her eyes as she felt his thumbs press the delicate skin on either side of her sex, pulling the soft petals of her labia gently aside. He pressed the bulb of her clitoris with the tip of his tongue and Max arched uncontrollably, idly wondering if the feline part of their DNA made their tongues' taste buds slightly rougher like a cat's would be, and whether or not he'd use that to their mutual advantage.

He slid his tongue down the center of her parted skin until it curled into her vagina, rubbing his taste buds against her inner wall.

Humming in arousal, Max attempted to grip the counter – find something to hold onto while Alec proved how astute her name for him had been. He swept his tongue up one side of her labia and then down the other, only to switch it up, pressing his tongue along the sensitive muscle.

Max panted and reached a hand between her legs to grab a handful of his hair, involuntarily pulling him further toward her center.

Alec pulled back a little at Max's desperate grasping and peeked up over her abdomen to see her face. Her brows were turned up in an almost pained expression, her lips were parted (and themselves looking rather delectable), and her soft breasts moved with her breathing.

He caught himself hoping she'd open her eyes and look at him with a loving smile – because truth be told, he couldn't get enough of her.

And then she did open her eyes, fixing her wanton stare on him. Skin flushed from pleasure, she looked even more radiant. She rose onto her elbows again and held his stare as he lowered his head back down to the wet center of her.

Max felt the urge to cross her legs to help alleviate the building tension, then smiled with the image it left her: Alec, quiet, and stuck between her legs.

He nibbled at her clitoris, gently rolling the nub between his lips and teeth, before riding his tongue flatly against and into her. He could tell she wanted to close her eyes, let her head fall back, let him take over until she was screaming and thrashing under his ministrations, but something was holding her back.

He paused a moment. "Max," he called.

Her fiery chocolate eyes zeroed in on him.

"Trust me," he said. It was as if a battle had been waged in her mind. He swept his hand around to the front of her hip and held it there firmly. "Trust me. I won't hurt you. Let go."

She held his stare a bit longer, then closed her eyes and systematically relaxed her muscles. She was completely naked before him – no clothing, no predispositions, no inhibitions – and it made her nervous as hell.

Reposting himself at her entrance, Alec began licking, swiping, twisting and tickling with his tongue, until he could hear her breaths coming faster and see her breasts moving up and down. She bit her lip to keep from screaming incomprehensible sounds at him.

As her vaginal walls began to squeeze his tongue, Alec rubbed his hand up her body and cupped her breast, squeezing it gently, and pinching and twisting her nipple.

By the sound of her moan and the quickening of her breath, he could feel her on the verge of orgasm. But instead of her uncontrolled moaning of what he hoped was his own name, or if he was really good, unintelligible sounds, he heard a knock at the door.

Max twitched to sit up, but Alec made a split second decision and quickened his pace. She squeezed her legs and tried to pull his wicked mouth away by his hair, but he mumbled softly, seemingly within her. 'Trust me,' he said against her, and she rocked back at the sensation.

He buried his face in her sex and flicked his tongue in and out, up and down, across everything, and let its rough surface drag across her clitoris.

She was holding her breath to save whoever was at the door from hearing her orgasm. She could feel it as if it was a cresting wave about to crash over them.

In an inspired moment, Alec shoved his hand further up, and she latched onto it as her orgasm overpowered her. Writhing under his skilled and manic mouth, she tried to push herself down over his face, get him even further inside (if that was even possible).

Alec groaned in pain at the same time, an intense erection pushing at his jeans. Later he'd laugh to himself that maybe Max was right – maybe he was a masochist, but in the moment, all he hoped was that the knocker would leave so he could ravage Max, finish what they started, no matter how long it took. There was nothing else he wanted more in that moment than to be inside her, causing all those beautiful screams. He was certain that the moment he slipped into her, they'd be at it for hours, just enjoying making love.

He continued to pleasure her, sucking up her juices and gradually decreasing the pressure of his tongue, until Max's vise-like jaw released his throbbing hand.

Detaching himself from her, he slowly rose to standing position, his erection and hand both pulsing.

Max sat up on her elbows again, shooting him a simmering, sultry stare. She sat up the rest of the way and pulled him toward her by the waist of his jeans. In a flurry of moment, she unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, and started pushing them down his hips with his help. She leaned forward and bit his left nipple, just as they heard another knock.

"Ahh," Alec groaned from the pleasure and pain of her bite, as well as the surprise of the visitor still at the door. He hadn't meant it to be so loud; he'd just lost control in the moment.

Max tongued toward the center of his chest as they both heard a familiar voice. "Sugar, you home? Original Cindy can hear ya, ya know."

This time, they stopped their lustful foreplay and stared wide-eyed at one another. _Cindy?_

The door jiggled as Original Cindy tried the knob. Each transgenic zeroed in on the door knob, both knowing the lock was sturdy but the doorframe lacked integrity. Panicked, Max swung off the counter and grabbed her jeans, bra, shirts and boots. 'Panties,' she mouthed to him.

Alec looked but couldn't see where he'd dropped her underwear.

Max rolled her eyes, looked back to him, and mouthed, 'fire escape?'

'Bedroom,' he mouthed back.

Kind of excited that she had to sneak out, she quickly rose up onto her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. Pleasantly surprised, Alec smiled as she turned to run to his bedroom. He smacked her on the ass and then tried to figure out what that kiss had meant.

With Max safely in his room and door shut, he knew she'd sneak out silently. They were Manticore-trained soldiers, after all. He heard the door knob again. "Just a second!" He tried to figure a cover story. Quickly, he pulled his pants back up and kicked his shoes aside.

"Boo, I'm comin' in. We need to finish our little chat from earlier."

He opened the door to see a very impatient-look Cindy, tapping her foot. She looked past him to see if they were alone. Alec smiled nervously, turned toward the kitchen, and took a deep swig from the vodka bottle.


End file.
